Nuclear waste cleanup sites in New Mexico have been among the hardest hit in the country by staff losses due to a deferred resignation program offered by the federal government last year, according to a recent report.
The Los Alamos field office lost about 40% of its environmental management personnel in a two-year period, according to a May 19 Government Accountability Office report. At the end of fiscal year 2025, the Los Alamos office had a 62% vacancy rate; the Carlsbad field office had a vacancy rate of 48%. The vast majority of staff attrition at both was due to the deferred resignation program.
And more losses could come, the report states, as additional employees become eligible for retirement. Officials with the Office of Environmental Management reported the cleanup enterprise was “losing knowledge at a rapid rate” as people left the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Los Alamos office is charged with cleaning up legacy waste from the Manhattan Project and Cold War weapons development; its southern counterpart manages the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The GAO, an independent oversight agency, previously reported in 2024 a 17% vacancy rate among environmental management personnel put the cleanup of nuclear waste at risk of “schedule delays, cost overruns, and workplace accidents.”
The deferred resignation programs the Trump administration offered federal employees in 2025 compounded the problem. Employees could agree to resign and go on paid administrative leave for several months. It was part of a larger effort, driven by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, to make major reductions to the federal workforce and cut spending in other areas.
Nationwide, over a two-year period, the environmental management program lost more than 400 workers, leaving a vacancy rate of 45% at the end of fiscal year 2025.
Between the end of fiscal years 2023 and 2025, all 15 active cleanup sites around the country lost workers.
“[Environmental management] relies on federal staff to oversee its nuclear waste cleanup, which is the result of decades of nuclear weapons production and research at locations across the country,” the report states. “Since January 2025, several executive orders, memoranda, and related programs have affected [the environmental management] workforce.”
‘Understaffed’
The Los Alamos field office had bolstered staff numbers since December, spokesperson Stephanie Gallagher wrote in an email. That included the addition of a new federal facility representative for a Los Alamos legacy radioactive waste site known as Area G in Technical Area 54.
Gallagher wrote the cleanup of legacy waste has continued despite vacancies. Emergency Management-Los Alamos “remains committed to safely, effectively, efficiently, and transparently completing legacy cleanup work at LANL,” she wrote.
The staffing levels at the beginning of the fiscal year were below both program needs and the budget for employees. The GAO reported the office plans to hire new workers, with the Carlsbad and Los Alamos sites looking to add 28 and 13 full-time employees, respectively.
The office is hiring for “key positions,” Gallagher wrote.
Particularly concerning, the GAO wrote in the May 19 report, was that “mission critical” facility representatives were “chronically understaffed.” The representatives may need more than a year and a half of training but have an important role in evaluating site safety.
Both the Carlsbad and Los Alamos field offices had multiple field representative vacancies as of December 2025.
“These facility representatives serve as [Environmental Management’s] on-site presence for safety and compliance purposes,” the report authors wrote. “Additionally, facility representatives observe, evaluate, and report on various areas crucial to safe and efficient operations, including the conduct of operations, quality assurance, emergency response readiness, and worker health and safety.”
‘Stretched thin’
According to the report, environmental management officials told the GAO that as of the end of December, there hadn’t been a work stoppage due to worker shortages. But workers said they were getting “stretched thin” and in some cases contractors had to be hired as a stopgap.
“According to [Environmental Management] officials, leaving these positions vacant means there are fewer people to manage the workload, resulting in employees potentially burning out with heavy workloads, which gives them concern over the safety of operations,” the GAO reported.
A spokesperson for the Carlsbad field office did not provide an update on any staffing increases, including for facility representatives, between December 2025 and Thursday. However, she indicated in a statement the Office of Environmental Management was unfazed by staff losses.
“The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management remains fully equipped with the expertise necessary to carry out mission-critical projects, including with regards to addressing contaminated buildings, soil, and groundwater, and treating radioactive waste,” Valerie Gohlke wrote in an email. “Thanks to President Trump, the Energy Department’s Environmental Management Office is advancing common sense solutions that protect public health and safety, fulfill cleanup responsibilities, and deliver greater value for the American taxpayer.”
