NNSA furloughs about 1,400 workers as shutdown enters third week

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to furlough about 1,400 workers by Monday as the partial federal government shutdown stretches into its third week, agency and Energy Department officials said Friday. The move will leave roughly 375 employees on duty to carry out narrowly defined safety and security tasks while most scientific, modernization and nonproliferation work is paused.

The NNSA, a semiautonomous arm of the Energy Department responsible for maintaining the nation's nuclear stockpile, providing nuclear propulsion systems for the Navy and preventing the spread of nuclear materials, exhausted carryover funds this week, House Armed Services Committee chair Mike Rogers said at a Friday news conference. An Energy Department spokesperson confirmed the workforce figures and said furlough notices were being issued in accordance with contingency plans for a funding lapse.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview that the department would be unable to pay many employees beginning Monday if the shutdown continues and that as many as 100,000 contract workers associated with NNSA activities face risk of furlough without back pay. An Energy Department...