Roughly 1,400 federal employees who manage and supervise the nation’s nuclear arsenal have been furloughed amid the ongoing partial government shutdown — now ranked as the third longest in U.S. history.
The affected personnel work under the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a critical arm of the Department of Energy that oversees the safety, security, and reliability of the United States’ nuclear weapons.
The lapse in federal funding forced these workers off duty without pay, raising alarms over potential interruptions in nuclear stewardship, nonproliferation work, and emergency response functions.
Despite the furloughs, the agency announced that core functions essential to national security will continue, including emergency response and select nonproliferation efforts, sustained through limited staffing.