Congressional lawmakers from New Mexico announced $10 million in federal funds to repair roads that connect Los Alamos National Laboratory to the country’s only disposal site for nuclear weapons waste.
It’s called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and since 1999 it’s where the country’s transuranic waste is permanently disposed of.
WIPP is more than 20 miles east of Carlsbad, and carved more than 2,000 feet underground.
“New Mexico and WIPP are the backbone of our nation’s nuclear program,” US Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., said in a joint statement with Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) on Sept. 28.
“This funding is much needed to ensure the safety and improvement of transportation of volatile materials to the facility. We cannot accept any shortcuts or funding shortfalls with a mission this sensitive, and this important,” Vasquez said.
Why are roads around WIPP getting federal repairs now?
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., noted the award marks the first time funds to improve the roads in and out of WIPP have been approved since 2014.
“Last appropriations cycle, I fought like hell to secure this funding—to get New Mexico more of the funding we deserve for our role in maintaining the nation’s only deep geologic repository for radioactive defense waste,” Heinrich said in the press release.
The funding was also supported by Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., who said it was “vital that we have the infrastructure needed to support its operations and safely manage the disposal of nuclear waste.”
The funding would repair infrastructure on the US-285 Relief Route, where shipments of nuclear waste from Los Alamos to WIPP are expected to increase.
According to reporting from KOAT, state environmental officials say that the site was approximately 40% full before more storage at the site was approved.
What is WIPP’s safety record?
Safety at WIPP has been a concern since operations began in 1999.
It was closed for three years following incidents in 2014, including a truck fire and a chemical explosion inside an underground storage drum of nuclear waste that was mistakenly packed with the wrong brand of kitty litter, which is used to absorb liquid nuclear waste in the facility, at Los Alamos National Laboratory before being shipped to WIPP.
The site resumed accepting transuranic nuclear waste in 2017. On Aug. 18, the Department of Energy committed to operating WIPP until 2083.
In 2025, President Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) temporarily targeted WIPP and proposed terminating the lease for the Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees WIPP operations. New Mexico’s congressional delegation swiftly condemned the potential cuts and successfully reversed the decision.
