Timecard fraud at nuclear weapons plant led to quality issues, delays
Source: USA Today
Dec. 1, 2025, 3:48 p.m. ET
Years of timecard fraud at the Texas factory where U.S. nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled have harmed production timelines and operational safety procedures, and subsequent firings caused quality control issues with the nuclear weapons produced there, according to a federal government watchdog report.
The new information about the timekeeping scandal at the Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, was released in an audit by the Department of Energy's inspector general office on Nov. 26. According to a Justice Department announcement about the lengthy fraud scheme, some weapons production technicians at the plant submitted timecards that claimed more hours than they had worked. The fraudulent time card submissions occurred from 2014 to 2020, the government said.
According to the audit, the missed hours directly led to "production delays" and "negative impacts to conduct of operations," which is a formalized work procedure designed to keep the nuclear workforce, the general public and the environment safe.
The company overseeing the Pantex plant disciplined the technicians, and at least some of them were fired. The firings led to other problems due to the loss of workforce expertise, Energy Department auditors found. Training and security clearances for replacement and interim employees cost around $8.4 million, and Pantex also saw a subsequent rise in "weapons quality incident reports" that document nuclear weapons production errors.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/01/pantex-texas-nuclear-weapons-plant-timecard-fraud/87549922007/