A truck carries nuclear waste drums at WIPP. Photo: Roy Neese/Salado Isolation Mining Contractors
The Trump administration appears to have reversed DOGE's attempt to close an office overseeing the country's only permanent repository for nuclear waste, according to New Mexico lawmakers.
Why it matters: Keeping DOE's Carlsbad Field Office open would be the agency's second major backtrack in the nuclear space after Elon Musk's team selected it for closure.
- The agency previously had to rehire NNSA workers DOGE had fired. DOE Secretary Chris Wright called the firings a "mistake."
Zoom in: The field office helps manage operations for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which stores nuclear waste from defense-related activities.
Driving the news: Rep. Gabe Vasquez told Axios he got "verbal confirmation" from the administration that the facility, which is in his district, wouldn't be closed. He said he's awaiting a written response for official confirmation.
- Vasquez and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan had sent a letter probing the issue after it appeared on the DOGE list and amid reports that GSA had moved to terminate the lease.
- Sen. Martin Heinrich told Axios it's his "understanding" that the administration had backtracked.
- And Carlsbad Mayor Richard Lopez told New Mexico TV station KOB 4 that "the lease remains intact."
The 90,850-square-foot Skeen-Whitlock Building houses 200 employees as well as the emergency response center and a satellite tracking system for the repository's transportation system, said John Heaton, a longtime WIPP supporter from Carlsbad.
- WIPP staff has been cut 30%, Heaton said, leaving only a skeleton staff to oversee and command WIPP operations, expansions, new construction, and the transportation system.
- "This should have never been on the list in the first place," Vasquez said.
Yes, but: The facility was still on DOGE's list of lease terminations as of 11:30 a.m.
- DOE referred questions to GSA, which didn't respond to a request for comment. The White House also didn't immediately return a request for comment.
