Albuquerque, Nm – Federal officials have retreated on the plans to cancel a lease for office space in New Mexico, where dozens of employees of the United States Department of Energy who supervise the only repository of underground nuclear waste in the Nation are based.
The measure occurred on Thursday after the American representative Gabe Vásquez and other members of the Delegation of the State Congress expressed concerns, pointing out the importance of the Pilot waste insulation plant to the multimillionaire effort of the nation to clean tons of waste from decades of pump formation and nuclear research.
The office building in question also houses the contracted workers involved in operations in underground facilities outside Carlsbad.
The Department of Energy confirmed in a statement to Associated Press that the General Services Administration had revoked its prior notice to the rights of termination of the exercise for the leases of the multiple facilities of the department, including the office building in Carlsbad. The department said the measure ensures “that these critical mission operations continue without interruptions.”
Vásquez said the initial notice to finish the lease contract as part of the Trump administration efforts to reduce government spending It was reckless and myopic.
“This installation is essential for the administration and elimination of defense -related nuclear waste,” Vásquez said in a warning issued earlier this week. “Its closure could severely interrupt WIPP operations, which leads to delays in waste elimination and compromising the established safety protocols to protect both the public and the environment.”
Vásquez’s office splashed federal officials with emails and telephone calls after hearing that the Carlsbad building was on the GSA list to save. He joined the Democratic sensation of the United States Ben Ray Lujan and Martin Heinrich.
While federal officials said Thursday that the lease contract was in “all strength and effect”, the Carlsbad office was still among tens of finished leases that appear in the government efficiency department. Official website Friday.
Vásquez’s office said that cost reduction and employee reductions that Doge have created confusion in New Mexico and other states where the federal government is among the largest employers and has forced federal agencies to fight to justify their real estate properties.
In the southeast of New Mexico, federal officials and contractors have been working on An expensive ventilation project In the underground repository to improve air flow. Just this week, the Environmental Management Office of the Department of Energy announced that the implementation of the system is complete, qualifying it as an important milestone.
Carved in an old salt formation of approximately half mile (800 meters) deep, The underground landfill He received his first sending of radioactive waste in 1999. The idea is that the changing salt eventually enriches the waste, which includes gloves, clothing, tools and other materials contaminated with plutonium and other elements.
