The U.S. government is attempting to reinstate nuclear safety personnel it dismissed on Thursday but is struggling to notify them to resume their duties, NBC News has reported.
The National Nuclear Security Administration staff were among hundreds of employees in the energy department who received termination notices.
An email obtained by NBC stated that the dismissal letters for certain NNSA personnel “are being revoked, but we do not have an effective method to contact those individuals.”
The layoffs are part of an extensive initiative by President Donald Trump to reduce the federal workforce, a campaign he launched on his first day in office, less than a month ago.
Last week, close to 10,000 federal employees were dismissed, according to multiple U.S. media sources.
That number was in addition to the estimated 75,000 employees who accepted an offer from the White House to depart voluntarily in the autumn.
The nuclear security specialists who were let go on Thursday supervised the country’s reserve of nuclear weaponry. That included personnel assigned to locations where the arms are assembled, according to CNN.
In an attempt to reach out to the affected personnel, the email, which was dispatched to current staff, stated: “Please collaborate with your supervisors to relay this message (once received) to individuals’ private email contacts.”
Trump is striving to reduce expenditures across the board, both internationally and domestically, even advocating for the dissolution of the education department. He is receiving assistance from the world’s wealthiest individual, Elon Musk, who, through an initiative known as Doge for Department of Government Efficiency, has deployed teams to analyze data within federal institutions and helped execute the “buyout” proposal.
Last week, the Trump administration instructed agencies to terminate nearly all probationary employees—those who had generally been in their roles for under a year and had not yet attained job security. This included the NNSA personnel.
Overall, the action could potentially impact hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Several of the Trump administration’s strategies to reduce government size and expenditures have encountered legal opposition.
More than 60 lawsuits have been lodged against the Trump administration since the president was sworn in on January 20.
