Here’s a chance for you to join a group of USAFacts fans who will get to test new features before they launch! 

 

Feedback from early testers plays a critical role in improving the USAFacts website for everyone — and you’ll have the opportunity to earn USAFacts swag! If you’d like to participate, please complete this survey to see if you qualify. Thank you!

In mid-February, about 2,000 Energy Department employees were laid off in a round of DOGE-related cuts, including up to 350 National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees. Within a few days, the Trump administration reversed the NNSA cuts, as they included people who handle jobs as sensitive as reassembling nuclear warheads.  

 

Here’s the info on who’s keeping the US nuclear arsenal secure.  

 

The National Nuclear Security Administration was created in 2000 and is part of the Energy Department. The department ranked 13th for federal agency spending last fiscal year, spending 0.7% of the nation’s budget. (For comparison, the Department of Health and Human Services was the top spender at 25.4%). 

 

Of Energy Department programs, the NNSA spent the most: $23.1 billion. 

The NNSA requested a $25 billion budget for fiscal year 2025. The request includes $19.9 billion for various weapons activities, $5.1 billion for stockpile management, $5.9 billion for product modernization, $2.1 billion for Naval reactors, and $564.5 million for salaries and expenses. 

 

Those federal salaries pay for the approximately 1,800 federal employees who worked for the NNSA as of 2024. They oversee over 55,000 contractors. 

 

As you might imagine, these roles aren’t exactly easy to fill. A 2024 Government Accountability Office report noted that many experienced staff leave for higher-paying jobs. The requirement that employees be US citizens to obtain security clearances shrinks the qualified applicant pool even further. 

 

These employees oversee sites nationwide. Nuclear missiles and bombers are in at least eight states, though their precise locations are classified. But we do know where some parts of the nuclear puzzle are stored, including intercontinental ballistic missiles at three Air Force bases, gravity nuclear weapons for nuclear-capable aircraft in Nevada, and nuclear submarines in Washington and Georgia.  

The NNSA manages six facilities that produce and assemble nuclear weapon components, plus four facilities dedicated to research and development.  

 

The US maintains 3,750 nuclear warheads as of September 2020, both active and inactive. That’s down 88% from the Cold War peak of 31,255 warheads in 1967. 

 

Learn more about the country's role in the global nuclear picture here. For more on where your tax money goes, explore our government spending hub. We’ll see you next week.