During the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term he has moved aggressively to reduce the federal workforce and the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex has not been immune.
Trump’s second term, which started Jan. 20, hit the 100-day mark this week on April 30.
A document shared with Exchange Monitor in February indicated DOE’s Office of Environmental Management was losing 155 people outside of its Washington, D.C., headquarters to the Deferred Resignation Program, also dubbed the “Fork in the Road.” Since then a second round of federal buyouts has been launched.
The 155 employee figure would represent more than 10% of the Environmental Management office workforce, given that there were 1,260 federal employees there at the end of fiscal 2023.
Congressional Democrats have been pushing the administration and Energy Secretary Chris Wright for details on job cuts, including termination of probationary hires, and how they affect DOE’s work. In February, about 300 employees of the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) lost their jobs although most were soon rehired. In addition, a leaked memo that received much news coverage said the government considered huge swaths of the DOE workforce non-essential.
At the Environmental Management office, Candice Robertson, the head of day-to-day operations, left her job in March after President Trump’s directive clamping down on telework arrangements. Another former acting head of Environmental Management (EM), Jim Owendoff is also existing via a buyout.
In addition, top EM field managers at offices at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina have left the government. It should be noted the Oak Ridge manager, Jay Mullis, exited via traditional retirement.
The White House has also restricted federal employee travel.
Trump has also issued an executive order that would give the White House more sway over independent regulatory agencies such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Many of Trump’s executive orders are undergoing court challenges.
As far as getting his own leadership team in place at DOE, the Senate Armed Services Committee this week favorably endorsed the nomination of Brandon Williams to head NNSA. Williams must still undergo a confirmation vote by the full Senate.
Ted Garrish, Trump’s pick to head the Office of Nuclear Energy within DOE, received a hearing from the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee this week. Tim Walsh, the nominee to head EM, is still awaiting a confirmation hearing.
The Trump White House and DOE issued a statement this week stressing its support for nuclear power since the billionaire and former reality television star took office the second time on Jan. 20. A number of the items listed, including the push to restart the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan, have been in the works for months prior to Trump’s second term. Nevertheless, the White House is aggressively embracing advanced nuclear technology, including small modular reactors.
As a part of DOE’s embrace of advanced nuclear, it made conditional agreements with five U.S. nuclear companies to provide high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for their near-term fuel needs for their advanced reactors.
President Trump has also moved to discontinue any diversity, equity and inclusion offices within DOE.
Thus far, Secretary of Energy Wright and the administration have yet to say what will become of the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative started under President Joe Biden. The Trump administration is, however, very interested in using DOE nuclear installations as a home for artificial intelligence data centers that might be powered by advanced nuclear projects.
As in the first Trump administration, the White House has said it is not looking to jump-start licensing of the Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository in Nevada.
