US body responsible for protecting Nuclear Arsenal to furlough 1,400 workers amid govt shutdown

Amid the US government shutdown, the federal agency responsible for managing the American arsenal of nuclear bombs and warheads plans to furlough a whopping 80 per cent of its staff by Monday. The Department of Energy said on Friday that 1,400 workers will feel the effect of the government shutdown.

The Energy Department said in a statement that about 400 workers would remain at the agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration, to protect “property and the safety of human life.” It is pertinent to note that while the agency is semiautonomous, it is overseen by the Energy Department and was created in 2000.

The body is responsible for maintaining the United States’ nuclear stockpile and for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. Its precursors included the Atomic Energy Commission and Energy Research and Development Administration. According to The New York Times, the agency employed nearly 100,000 contractors and subcontractors.

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Not only this, but it had never furloughed any government employees during a government shutdown in the past. “We are left with no choice this time,” Ben Dietderich, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said in an email. “We’ve extended funding as long as we could.”

Energy Secretary to visit the station

In the Friday statement, the Energy Department said that the agency’s Office of Secure Transportation, which moves nuclear weapons and materials, had funding to operate through Oct. 27. The department noted that Energy Secretary Chris Wright will visit a nuclear security station on Monday to discuss the effects the government shutdown is having on American nuclear deterrent efforts.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Wright said that the US nuclear stockpile would remain secure, but that the government shutdown could compromise a program to replace ageing nuclear weaponry. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the plans to modernise America’s nuclear arsenal will cost more than $900 billion over the coming decade.

During Trump’s second term in office, his administration has significantly increased spending on the National Nuclear Security Administration. After the Energy Department announcement, US Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican of Alabama and chair of the House Armed Services Committee, expressed alarm at the impending furloughs.

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“These are not employees that you want to go home,” Rogers said at a news conference on Friday. “They’re managing and handling a very important strategic asset for us. They need to be at work and be paid.”

Meanwhile, Jay Coghlan, the executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, a private group that monitors the agency, said it was unclear if the furloughs would have any immediate effect on nuclear safety. “As a baseline, the nuclear safety officers have always been understaffed. There is simply not enough federal oversight as is. And then you’re talking about furloughing more," he added.