Trump Administration Backtracks on Closing the Field Office That Oversees a Nuclear Waste Site

The General Services Administration is now revoking its request to terminate the lease for the building set up to manage emergencies at a New Mexico nuclear waste repository.

Nuke Repository Plutonium

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository, is near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Susan Montoya Bryan/AP

The Trump administration is backtracking on plans to close a New Mexico Department of Energy office building that managed one of the country’s most crucial nuclear waste storage sites.

The General Services Administration, which has been terminating leases as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s push to substantially slash the government’s real estate footprint, is revoking a lease termination for the DOE’s Carlsbad office, according to a letter obtained by NOTUS.

Elon Musk’s DOGE had listed the Carlsbad office for closure on the DOGE website. NOTUS confirmed on March 3 that the office — which oversees the world’s only geologic repository for nuclear waste — was scheduled to be closed. The GSA sent lease termination letters for many of the government buildings listed on the DOGE website.