The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) which has handled the secure transportation of nuclear materials for the past 6 years has been trying to build up its staff to support the modernization of the country’s nuclear arsenal.
According to a NYT article, “It not only manages the nation’s 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads, it is modernizing that arsenal — a $20 billion-a-year effort that will arm a new fleet of nuclear submarines, bomber jets and land-based missiles.”
Although still hundreds of employees short of its staffing requirements, the agency is now losing some of its most experienced and capable people, including over 60 engineers, scientists and program manager/analysts.
The NNSA “has emerged as an example of how the Trump administration’s cuts, touted as a cure-all for supposed government extravagance and corruption, are threatening the muscle and bone of operations that involve national security or other missions at the very heart of the federal government’s responsibilities. The exodus ‘is going to make the job more difficult because what you lost were some of your most valuable leaders,’ said Scott Roecker, the vice president of the nuclear materials security program at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit organization, according to NYT.