New Mexico environment officials on Thursday issued new requirements for the federal government’s operation of the nation’s only nuclear waste disposal site as part of longstanding efforts to address legacy waste.

State officials, the federal government and contractors operating the lab and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant agreed to settlement terms in 2023 to dispose of more legacy waste in lieu of new defense waste and additional oversight terms. 

Environment Secretary James Kenney said this week the federal government has walked back those agreements in the intervening years. He said the latest budget from the Trump administration cut DOE’s total cleanup budget by 5%. Further, statements from WIPP that construction for areas to hold more legacy waste would be pushed back to 2032 circumvented the agreement, Kenney said.

“Simply because their budget is changing at a federal level does not excuse them from their obligation to meet the terms of our settlement agreement,” Kenney told Source NM.

He noted that WIPP disposal of waste from Idaho National Laboratory outstripped New Mexico at a rate of five to one in the last two years. 

The revised permit issued Thursday, requires a clear definition of legacy waste. It also mandates that WIPP dedicate 55% of disposal volume to LANL legacy waste through 2031, raising that to 75% of total disposal volume in 2032. Additionally, it requires all waste at a LANL nuclear and chemical waste landfill to be shipped to WIPP by July 1, 2028. Finally, the permit increases reporting requirements. 

The new permit allows state officials to put the focus back on legacy waste cleanup and strengthen transparency, Kenney said. 

The DOE will “carefully evaluate” the state’s proposed changes, said Valerie Gohlke, the communications manager for the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office, in a statement to Source NM.

Anti-nuclear watchdogs told Source NM the proposed regulations represent a significant shift in state regulator’s posture towards the federal nuclear program — and in their view — a welcome one. 

“It’s pointing to an increasingly adversarial relationship between NMED and DOE, all of which I view as good,” said Nuclear Watch New Mexico Executive Director Jay Coghlan. “It means NMED is putting New Mexicans ahead of the nuclear weapons industry.”

Greg Mello, the executive director of nuclear nonproliferation nonprofit Los Alamos Study Group, noted that the Trump administration nearly doubled the plutonium pit production program in the past year at LANL.“The Trump administration wants to make more nuclear weapons over cleaning up the mess from the old ones,” Mello said. “NMED rightly insists that there be a provision for cleaning up the mess that LANL and DOE made.”  

NMED is accepting public comment on the draft revised permit until June 8, and said in a news release that the process is expected to conclude in the fall.