Musk Attacks NNSA
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Like all the illegal cuts by Musk’s boys, the cuts at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are not thought out and will do damage. But maybe not as much damage as some are making it out to be.
Unlike the Social Security Administration, which actually determines who is eligible for how much and approves the checks to be cut, the NNSA largely administers and supervises contracts to the organizations that actually do the work. There are exceptions, like the secure transport unit, which transports nuclear materials and assemblies. There are (were, I guess) 1800 employees of the NNSA, and 60,000 employees at the contractors.
Ben Dietderich, the Department of Energy’s chief spokesman said, “Contrary to news reports, the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons production plants and nuclear laboratories are operated by federal contractors and have been exempt” from cuts.
The biggest crunch has to do with the ramping-up of activity to produce more plutonium pits for nuclear weapons while part of the support is being removed. The people who are leaving provide coordination with other government agencies and with the budget. They do not work in gloveboxes nor design the materials.
There is an element of safety oversight, but that is shared by the contractors.
“The federal oversight is vital,” said Corey Hinderstein, the agency’s deputy administrator for nonproliferation under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “Do you have any construction projects at your house? You wouldn’t just say to the contractor: ‘I want something like this room. Have fun.’”
There has always been a tension between DOE/NNSA oversight and the contractors. Some of the contractors simply manufacture parts for nuclear weapons, but the weapons laboratories have responsibilities that bump up against what DOE managers feel belong to them. In the movie “Oppenheimer,” the conflict between Oppenheimer and Lewis Straus was both personal and institutional, presaging this tension. As a personal note, I felt that I was working for the people of the United States in my job at the Los Alamos lab until a smartass kid at DOE referred to me disparagingly as a lesser being working for a contractor. Ronald Reagan did that.
Some of the reports exaggerate the importance of the NNSA cuts. I think this is one.
On the other hand, I’m likely to play down their importance. Things may become less safe and more difficult with the loss of NNSA people, just as in other agencies. What Musk’s boys are doing is illegal and foolish.
Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner