Nuclear waste drums are unloaded underground at WIPP. Photo: Roy Neese/Salado Isolation Mining Contractors
DOGE plans to close a DOE field office in New Mexico responsible for managing the country's only permanent nuclear waste repository.
Why it matters: The office's supporters say staffing and office cuts could threaten safety and oversight at the Energy Department's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which is seen as a rare success story in finding a home for the country's nuclear waste.
- Nuclear power has gained bipartisan support as a zero-carbon way to meet power demand from data centers, but political gridlock in Congress on waste siting remains a source of criticism.
The big picture: Closing the 90,850-square-foot Skeen-Whitlock Building in Carlsbad would save $1.76 million, according to the DOGE website.
- The office supervises the burying of waste from Cold War–era nuclear weapons production.
- A contractor spokesperson for the field office referred questions to the DOE. Neither DOE nor DOGE immediately responded to requests for comment.
What they're saying: "It is deeply concerning," said a former DOE official who requested anonymity.
- The field office had lost 30% of its staff through layoffs and the voluntary buyout program, "which was a gut punch to them already," the person said.
- "On the one hand, I'm not surprised," said Don Hancock, director of the nuclear waste program at Albuquerque's Southwest Research and Information Center.
- "On the other hand, there will presumably be a lot of pushback from Carlsbad government and economic leaders that had long promoted having" the field office.
