Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge has lost federal staff under Trump, NYT reports

• The federal oversight office at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge has lost four employees amid Trump’s cuts, according to new reporting.
• The Department of Energy did not immediately respond to questions about the lost employees, though it also hasn’t responded to a Knox News email from a month ago.
• The plant processes uranium and lithium parts of nuclear warheads and is behind on a major infrastructure project.

The federal office overseeing nuclear weapons modernization at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is understaffed after losing employees under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a new report.

The Y-12 Field Office budgets for 92 staff members, but is down to 84 after four employees left, the New York Times reported on March 17 based on internal documents it obtained from the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency within the Department of Energy that includes Y-12.

The Times did not say whether the four employees were among 130 nuclear weapons agency employees who took federal buyouts or 27 employees who were fired and not rehired. Knox News included this question in emails to the Department of Energy’s chief spokesperson and press office, but did not immediately receive a response.

Several probationary employees at Y-12 were fired in February before Trump officials reversed course and offered them their jobs back, a Y-12 source with knowledge of the firings told Knox News.

The Department of Energy never responded to an email Knox News sent on Feb. 17 asking how many employees received termination letters and if any had returned to their jobs. The layoffs originally targeted more than 300 of the agency’s 1,900 federal workers, said former agency head Jill Hruby.

With Trump’s approval, unelected businessman Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have reduced the federal workforce by more than 100,000 people through deferred resignations and mass layoffs since January.

Some critics said the reversed layoffs at the agency were a sign that Trump officials misunderstood how the federal government works on nuclear weapons. Trump denied a request for national security exemptions for layoffs at the agency last week.

Y-12 already behind on major nuclear project

The vast majority of workers at Y-12 are employees of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Department of Energy’s management contractor, and are not considered federal employees. Around 8,600 employees process the uranium and lithium components of nuclear warheads at the original Manhattan Project site.

Y-12 is modernizing as many as seven different kinds of nuclear weapons at once, the most demanding program since the Cold War. Because the plant is simultaneously tearing down old buildings that are falling apart and constructing large new facilities, its workload is “unprecedented,” former Y-12 Field Office head Teresa Robbins told Knox News in 2024.

Robbins is acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, overseeing an agency with more work to do and fewer federal employees to make sure it’s being done well while Trump’s nominee waits for a confirmation hearing.

The work at Y-12 is part of an agency-wide program that could spend $1.7 trillion to secure and upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal as China rapidly builds nuclear weapons.

Y-12 is several years behind and multiple billions of dollars over budget on the Uranium Processing Facility, its main construction project now expected to cost more than $10 billion and enter operations in 2031. The plant will move critical work on highly enriched uranium from a 1945 building once complete.

Oak Ridge elected officials told Knox News they were worried about long-term harm caused by workforce reductions, especially if senior officials took the buyout offer.

“You can lose some key people, and any time you lose that much institutional knowledge and value of relationships, then it creates a more uncertain situation for the alignment that we’ve really worked hard to create,” said Roane County Executive Wade Creswell. “My mind runs to a few key people that I would hate to lose.”

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said during a visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Feb. 28 that DOGE cuts were overblown and that he thought layoffs at the lab would not be “an issue at all.” Knox News has not verified any workforce or spending cuts at ORNL.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Wright said.

Are you a current or former federal employee with a story to tell? Contact Daniel Dassow, a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy, at daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com or on Signal @danieldassow.24.

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