--- title: "Government Lawyer Horrified as Musk Grants Nuclear Access to DOGE Boy" description: "A DOGE staffer was granted to the Energy Department's basic IT system which is also used by the agency that manages the US nuclear stockpile." date: "2025-02-07" modified: "2025-02-07" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/nuclear-access-doge" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "doge" - "elon musk" - "nuclear weapons" --- # Government Lawyer Horrified as Musk Grants Nuclear Access to DOGE Boy ![A DOGE staffer was granted to the Energy Department's basic IT system which is also used by the agency that manages the US nuclear stockpile.]() *\Image: University of Nebraska-Lincoln\* One of Elon Musk's [kiddos]() from the Department of Government Efficiency is now mucking his way through the Energy Department — bringing him into ominous proximity to the nation's atomic arsenal. As [*CNN* ]()[reports](), the 23-year-old DOGE staffer, a former SpaceX intern named Luke Farritor, was granted access to the DOE's IT system, despite protests from the department's general counsel and chief information office. And guess what? The system, which includes email and Microsoft 365, is also used by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) — the folks in charge of safeguarding the US's stockpile of nuclear weapons. This is, as the protesting bureaucrats called it, "a bad idea." Farritor wasn't subject to a standard background check that every other federal employee or contractor has to go through. He is, for all intents and purposes, just some kid. "He's not cleared to be in DOE, on our systems," one of the employees from the general counsel and chief information offices told *CNN*. "None of those things have been done." The good news is that the access, as currently reported, sounds fairly basic. Per the report, the chief information office only does a "small" amount of IT and cybersecurity for the NNSA, a semiautonomous agency within the DOE, including basic internet services. And so, in a minor and increasingly rare victory in sane governance, the IT systems that the DOGE staffer is probing through are *not* the ones used by the NNSA's labs that control the US's nuclear stockpile. Phew. Still, it'll be a little too close for comfort for some. There was no rigorous vetting behind the DOGE staffer's access, with no semblance of the [meritocratic process]() that anti-DEI zealots love to harp on to be found. Instead, Trump's Energy Secretary Chris Wright decreed that the DOGE dilettante should get access, according to *CNN*, and that was that. This is the playbook being used at other agencies. At the Treasury Department, Musk and his lieutenants forced out top officials to [seize access to the government's sensitive payment system](), a pipeline for trillions of dollars every year. Musk then declared his intent to [shut down government payments]() he deemed unnecessary. The security of this whole gutting operation is becoming more and more suspect, too. At the Education Department and possibly elsewhere, DOGE is reportedly [feeding sensitive government data into AI software]() to determine what programs and spending should get cut. In any case, this might just be the beginning of the chaos at the DOE. According to *CNN*, employees at the department and the NNSA have started receiving "buyout" emails, offering them a payout to leave their positions. Does the prospect of employees quitting the agency that manages nukes en masse sound like a stable way to manage things? **More on DOGE:** [*Young DOGE Engineer Now Has Access to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Which Warns Americans When Hurricanes are Forming*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()