NNSA says old buildings taken down at Kirtland

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says demolition and disposal has been completed at the old Albuquerque Complex on the grounds of the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The $8.4 million demolition, started in March 2024, was overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alabama District through an interagency agreement, NNSA said in a July 25 press release.

The work included disposition of more than 300,000 gross square feet of buildings, and 435,000 gross square feet of parking lot area, according to the release.

Getting rid of the aging structures eliminates $11 million of deferred maintenance, NNSA said in the release. About 60% of NNSA’s facilities are at least 40 years old. The complex was deemed an “excess” facility but was not contaminated by past processes, NNSA said. 

The Albuquerque Complex was made up of 26 buildings built between the 1950s and the 1990s mostly as barracks for what was known as the Sandia base, NNSA said in the release.

Late in the 1950s staff for DOE predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, moved into the old surplus barracks which would become the DOE’s Albuquerque Operations Office.

Three years ago 1,200 DOE and NNSA employees moved to the new John A. Gordon Albuquerque Complex at Kirtland Air Force Base.

Fifteen of the 26 structures were torn down. The other 11 were transferred (8) to the U.S. Air Force and (3) to NNSA for reuse, NNSA said.

“This milestone represents NNSA’s commitment to legacy risk reduction and modernization,” said Acting Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security and NNSA Administrator Teresa Robbins in the release. “It also completes the one-for-one congressional offset supporting construction of the NNSA’s John A. Gordon Albuquerque Complex.”