Money to oversee nuclear weapons safety will start running low after 8 days, Energy secretary says

Source: Politico

10/03/2025 02:23 PM EDT


Energy Secretary Chris Wright is warning that the agency within the Energy Department that oversees the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile has only enough funding to operate at full strength for about eight more days because of the ongoing government shutdown.

“Eight more days of funding, and then we have to go into some emergency shutdown procedures, putting our country at risk,” Wright said Thursday evening on Fox News, referring to the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Prior to federal cuts imposed earlier this year, NNSA had more than 65,000 federal workers and contractors across the country responsible for a wide range of activities from maintaining the nuclear arsenal to international non-proliferation work and overseeing the U.S. Navy’s nuclear operations.

In its recent shutdown plan, the Energy Department said it would maintain the NNSA’s weapons-focused staff who operate “critical control operations systems,” as well as employees who work on tasks such as stemming the spread of nuclear weapons, but it did not offer figures on how many people that includes.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/03/nuclear-energy-nnsa-00592883