January 20 will mark the first time in the 17-year history of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) that it will exist without any appointed leadership. The NNSA is a $12 billion-a-year agency that controls our nation’s stockpile of roughly 7,000 nuclear weapons.
NNSA Leaders To Be Let Go
According to a report Monday by Gizmodo, President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has no plan to keep current NNSA leaders on board after the inauguration. Frank Klotz is the Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, while Madelyn Creedon is his deputy. Both positions require Senate confirmation to be filled. This would likely mean months of waiting before these leadership positions are once again occupied.
It isn’t a rare for an incoming president to clean house across US agencies. However, most tend to keep a few crucial roles filled until successors are named. Given the nature in which our nuclear affairs need to be handled, this has been especially true for the NNSA.
‘We’re So Very Very F**ked’
According to Joe Cirincione, a nuclear policy expert, this move by Trump “doesn’t make any sense.” Cirincione continues:
“It’s another one of the unprecedented moves that Trump sees as a clean sweep but could be very bad for the country. You really don’t want to strip away the senior management of your nuclear weapons without naming a replacement. The nukes are basically home alone if you do that.”
As one unnamed official within the Department of Energy stated:
“I’m more and more coming around to the idea that we’re so very very f**ked.”
For the entirety of President Barack Obama’s first term and through part of his second, the NNSA Administrator remained a former Bush appointee. Clearly, Obama understood the importance of not leaving our nuclear security in limbo.
Not A Done Deal
Trump still has time to ask both Klotz and Creedon to stay on board while they transition to this new administration. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that he’ll do this. It’s unclear at this point what instability at the top leadership for the NNSA would look like. Cirincione believes:
“It’s not as bad as not paying the guards of our nuclear weapons, but it’s as bad as not paying the people who pay for the guards of our nuclear weapons.”
Let’s hope the Trump transition team regains some sanity and realizes that our nuclear safety is not something that should be a causality of partisan politics.
Watch the video below to see why experts are extremely concerned about Trump’s finger being on the button.
This seems big: From @Morning_Joe: 3 times during a natsec briefing Trump asked 'Why can't we use nuclear weapons?' https://t.co/voJ0RlgnCw”
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) August 3, 2016
Featured image credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr/CC-2.0
