This is Not a Drill
Dr. Strangelove Sends His Regards
Update, evening of Feb. 14, 2025: According to the news, it appears that NNSA employees have their jobs back (at least for now) due an injunction from a judge, until the legality of their termination is sorted out. Allegedly, DOGE / the Trump administration did not know who manages the US nuclear weapons stockpile. That fact alone should worry the heck out of people. I still recommend educating yourself on this topic & contacting the appropriate representatives, as outlined below, to keep up the pressure in the event the injunction does not hold. XX - Alicia
You may or may not know this about me, since I have been on a sabbatical & this is definitely a travel blog, but I have 15 years of international experience in nuclear disarmament, arms control, and treaty verification. DOGE (which has the least legit website I have ever seen, their logo is from ClipArt…follow the link & you’ll see what I mean) is now in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its big sister, Department of Energy (DOE). Both NNSA and DOE manage national laboratories, plants, and sites that conduct basic research and development (R&D) activities in areas like energy, climate, computation, and yes, nuclear weapons. Normally, I keep this content sabbatical-focused, but…
THIS IS NOT A DRILL. DOGE HAS THEIR FINGER ON THE RED BUTTON, AND THEY PROBABLY DON’T EVEN KNOW IT.
You’re Probably Wondering What the Heck is the NNSA…so I Will Tell You
The NNSA is responsible for technical support to international treaties that (a) prevent the spread of nuclear weapons by monitoring nuclear activities in countries around the world and applying export controls to commodities that could be used nefariously, and (b) verifiably reduce the number of nuclear weapons we already have on this planet. The NNSA additionally works to prevent dirty bombs by protecting nuclear and radiological material worldwide, and by providing specialized support to security at events like the Super Bowl. Detection of nuclear explosions using special sensor technology also lies with the NNSA.
The NNSA is also responsible for certifying our nuclear stockpile annually, ensuring it remains “safe, secure, reliable, and effective.” This means that the NNSA mitigates potential risks like accidental nuclear war, accidental explosions, terrorists hijacking or stealing weapons, and even intentional nuclear war. They also directly support the detection of nuclear detonations, meaning the US can know when someone else has set one off.
NNSA is a small shop of nuclear policy and science experts whose one job is to keep us from blowing up the planet with nuclear weapons.
According to the news, DOGE has access to NNSA’s IT systems - and no one knows which, and no one knows who. They will likely start firing people from an already very small Administration, who have extremely specialized knowledge in niche areas that prevent nuclear war. Currently, our stockpile may be “unsafe, unsecure, unreliable, and uneffective,” and this should scare the sh*t out of everybody.
What You Can Do About It
If you like not having nuclear fallout drifting from the sky or dirty bombs being set off in football stadiums, it is time to call your senators, representatives, and state governors. Don’t know who they are? You can find them here at official US Government websites:
Senators: https://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_phone_list.pdf
US House of Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives
State Governors: https://www.usa.gov/state-governor
Please call (a) your local representatives - regardless of where you live, since nuclear war impacts LITERALLY everyone & everything on this planet - as well as (b) the representatives who have the following national labs, plants, and sites in their districts:
Illinois
Argonne National Lab in (the vicinity of) Chicago, IL
Located in the 11th Congressional District of Illinois, represented by Democrat Bill Foster: (202) 225-3515
Washington
Pacific Northwest National Labs in Richland, WA
Situated in Washington's 4th Congressional District, represented by Republican Dan Newhouse: (202) 225-5816
Pacific Northwest National Labs in Seattle, WA
Located in Washington's 7th Congressional District, represented by Democrat Pramila Jayapal: (202) 225-3106
Note: They are on the Foreign Affairs committee as well, so this is especially in their purview. You can mention this when you call.
New Mexico
Los Alamos National Lab in Los Alamos, NM
Found in New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District, represented by Democrat Teresa Leger Fernández: (202) 225-6190
Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, NM
Located in New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, represented by Democrat Melanie Stansbury: (202) 225-6316
Kansas
Kansas City Plant in Kansas City, KS
Situated in Kansas's 3rd Congressional District, represented by Democrat Sharice Davids: (202) 225-2865
Tennessee
Oak Ridge National Lab in Oak Ridge, TN
Situated in Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District, represented by Republican Chuck Fleischmann: (202) 225-3271
Note: They are on the Science, Space, and Technology committee as well, so this is especially in their purview. You can mention this when you call.
Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN
Same congressional district information as ORNL above
New York
Brookhaven National Lab in Long Island, NY
Located in New York's 1st Congressional District, represented by Republican Andrew R. Garbarino: (202) 225-7896
Note: They are on the Homeland Security committee as well, so this is especially in their purview. You can mention this when you call.
Texas
Pantex Plant in (the vicinity of) Amarillo, TX
Situated in Texas's 13th Congressional District, represented by Republican Ronny Jackson: (202) 225-3706
Note: They are on the Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees as well, so this is especially in their purview. You can mention this when you call.
South Carolina
Savannah River National Lab in Aiken, SC
Found in South Carolina's 2nd Congressional District, represented by Republican Joe Wilson: (202) 225-2452
Note: They are on the Foreign Affairs committee as well, so this is especially in their purview. You can mention this when you call.
Hawaii
Sandia National Labs in Kauai, Hawaii
Located in Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District, represented by Democrat Jill Tokuda: (202) 225-4906
Nevada
Sandia National Labs in (the vicinity of) Las Vegas
Situated in Nevada's 1st Congressional District, represented by Democrat Dina Titus: (202) 225-5965
Note: They are on the Foreign Affairs committee as well, so this is especially in their purview. You can mention this when you call.
Nevada National Security Site in (the vicinity of) Las Vegas
Same congressional district information as SNL above.
You can email them, but phone calls are more impactful according to former Congressional staffers (emails make it easy to just hit the “Delete” button).
Note: Representatives have offices in DC, as well as one(s) in their district (House) or home state (Senate). If you get a busy signal with the DC office number I provided above, you can try calling their local offices. I didn’t have time to look up local office phone numbers for you, so you will have to do an online search yourself for that information.
Talking Points
You will know your local politics best and therefore which talking points will resonate the most, but here are a few to get you started:
Potential loss of jobs, due to firing employees outright or freezing the research funding that covers their pay checks, is a concern at the local level.
The district / state is at risk of losing highly skilled scientists, engineers, and technicians to other districts / states, leading to a brain drain in the area. Brain drains reduce local and state tax revenues for things like building roads.
The labs/plants/sites bring in significant amounts of local and state dollars, through business travel to the area, for example, and any downsizing of these research facilities will negatively impact local economies significantly. Think: caterers for meetings, rental car companies, restaurants where people go on lunch breaks...all of these businesses will suffer. Moreover, these are typically small businesses, who are less resilient. It’s not just the labs/plants/sites’ employees who will suffer, but the entire town & region.
Innovative technologies developed at the labs/plants/sites are required by law to transition to the private sector for final development. Reducing funding & the workforce will slow down innovation, thus affecting R&D/tech companies who depend on the basic research being done by the NNSA and DOE. GPS started out as government research, for example, and now we have Google Maps that tells us how to get to the closest Starbucks.
Opportunities for early career individuals (such as internships) and veterans will likely be reduced or eliminated. Veterans are given preference in US government jobs, but if the jobs do not exist, it won’t matter whether they have preference or not.
The risk of nuclear war may skyrocket as a result of:
Uncleared and unknown individuals having access to DOE and NNSA IT systems. There is little to no transparency regarding whether DOGE has access to sensitive weapon information, which needs to be protected at the highest levels for obvious reasons.
Potential downsizing / firing of niche experts - both at the labs/plants/sites and NNSA headquarters in Washington, D.C. - who work nationally and internationally to prevent nuclear & radiological terrorism, as well as the spread of nuclear weapons to new countries, and to verifiably reduce the number of nuclear weapons we currently have.
Destruction of diplomacy efforts that take years and millions of dollars to put in place; there is the danger of DOGE’s actions irreparably damaging relationships with international partners; wasting the time and taxpayer money already invested; and giving competing nations an opportunity to fill the void.
Other countries using these actions as an opportunity to accuse the US of nefarious activities; if the US can no longer meet their international treaty obligations, global security can become extremely destabilized (especially with other nuclear weapon powers like Russia and China), and they may use this opportunity to cheat on their obligations or shred treaties and agreements altogether. In layman’s terms, this means countries may decide to rebuild (and rapidly!) their nuclear weapon arsenals. We do not want another arms race and/or Cold War and/or actual war.
Grab Your Phones & Get Busy 😘
Being anti-nuclear war is just common sense. There is no safe use of a nuclear weapon, no matter how small it is, no matter how targeted it is. A nuclear explosion will make a city, a country, a planet entirely uninhabitable. Period. If you live on Planet Earth, you should care. This is not political, this is survival.
I am very close to finished with my Antarctica post, so we will return to travel content shortly. In the meantime, even if you only have 5 minutes today to make 1 phone call, please do so - if only for the plants and animals who can’t speak for themselves. Feel free to forward this information to friends and family who need it.
I usually sign off with “Life is short, have fun,” but today I will conclude with:
Life is short, let’s not make it unnecessarily shorter!
Alicia xx