DOGE employees gain access to DOE nuclear weapons programs, news outlets report

Multiple media sites reported over the weekend that members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency started working at the Department of Energy without security clearances.

Chris Wright, the newly-confirmed Secretary of Energy, told CNBC Feb. 7  that three members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “have access to look around, talk to people and give us some good feedback on how things are going,” according to Reuters.

DOGE, an entity created by President Donald Trump, is headed by Musk, the technology billionaire and major Trump campaign donor. The DOGE mission is to help the White House eliminate wasteful government spending. 

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the DOE’s semi-autonomous agency that manages the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, did not respond to a request for comment as of Thursday evening.

Wright said in an interview with CNBC that what he called “rumors” that DOGE staffers at the DOE have access to nuclear secrets through NNSA are not “true at all.”

In a hearing Wednesday by the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on Energy, each of the lab directors from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory all said that they had not been contacted by any officials at DOGE.

Multiple news outlets quoted sources saying that all three DOGE members are listed in the DOE’s email and messaging systems. The DOGE representatives can seemingly access secure information although they might not have clearances, the news outlets reported. 

Numerous media outlets list one of three DOGE officials to whom Wright granted access to DOE documents was Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern who allegedly received rejections from members of the DOE’s general counsel and chief information offices, according to CNN.