Trump backtracks on DOGE firings of nuclear workers at places like SRS

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The Trump istration has halted the firings of hundreds of workers who manage nuclear waste at places like the Savannah River Site in the CSRA.

The about-face has left staff confused and experts cautioning that DOGE’s blind cost cutting – including last week’s firing of all federal workers on probationary employment – will put communities at risk.

Three U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security istration were abruptly laid off late Thursday.

1 woman dead after a house fire in Jackson

One woman is dead after a house fire on Sunday afternoon in Jackson, according to officials.

They included people managing massive radioactive waste sites at places including the Savannah River National Laboratory.

The lab employs 1,400 people at SRS, a Department of Energy nuclear facility that covers 310 square miles in Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale counties. Nuclear waste is a legacy of SRS, which was a linchpin in the nation’s weapons program throughout the Cold War.

At the Savannah River Site, H Canyon Outside Facilities Operator Andrew Pratt (left) and H... — At the Savannah River Site, H Canyon Outside Facilities Operator Andrew Pratt (left) and H Canyon Outside Facilities Radiological Control Operator Wanda Patterson load drums of depleted uranium solution.(SRS)

Some of the fired employees across the agency lost access to email before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning to find they were locked out.

The hundreds let go at NNSA were part of a Department of Government Efficiency purge across the Department of Energy that targeted about 2,000 employees.

“The DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.

MORE FROM NEWS 12

Trump 2.0: Latest from the new istration

Among the other nuclear sites affected were:

The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which saw about 30% of the cuts. Those employees work on reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise, with the highest levels of clearance.
The Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state, where workers secure 177 high-level waste tanks from the site’s previous work producing plutonium for the atomic bomb.
The Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, a Superfund contamination site where much of the early work on the Manhattan Project was done, among others.

How George Washington’s birthday became a national holiday

George Washington was uneasy about the idea of publicly celebrating his life. And yet the nation is once again commemorating the first U.S. president on Monday.

By late Friday night, the agency’s acting director, Teresa Robbins, issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of those hundreds of fired staff .

The s from the three officials contradict an official statement from the Department of Energy, which said fewer than 50 National Nuclear Security istration staffers were let go, calling them “probationary employees” who “held primarily istrative and clerical roles.”

But that wasn’t the case. The firings prompted one NNSA senior staffer to post a warning and call to action.

Doorbell camera captures terrifying gunpoint attack at Ga. home

Chatham County police are looking for three people who they say held a woman at gunpoint and shot a man inside a Chatham County home.

Chatham Co. Police investigating home invasion, shooting

“This is a pivotal moment. We must decide whether we are truly committed to leading on the world stage or if we are content with undermining the very systems that secure our nation’s future,” deputy division director Rob Plonski posted to LinkedIn. “Cutting the federal workforce responsible for these functions may be seen as reckless at best and adversarily opportunistic at worst.”

The NNSA staff who had been reinstated could not all be reached after they were fired, and some were reconsidering whether to return to work, given the uncertainty created by DOGE.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the firings could create a sense of instability over the nuclear program.

Family still seeking answers after killing at Ga. Amazon warehouse

Keontae Grider was a young father who was killed while on the clock at the Amazon fulfillment center in Pooler off Triple B Road on Jan. 13.

Family of Keontae Grider pleads for information and an arrest in their son's death

“I think the signal to U.S. adversaries is pretty clear: throw a monkey wrench in the whole national security apparatus and cause disarray,” he said. “That can only benefit the adversaries of this country.”