The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the nation’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, would undergo one of the larger Environmental Management spending cuts in fiscal 2026, according to recent administration data.
Carlsbad, in charge of the Office of Environmental Management (EM) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), would receive $427 million in fiscal 2026, down from the $505 million enacted for fiscal 2025. The 15% cut is listed in the budget justification charts released over the weekend by the White House.
The Carlsbad decrease is “attributed to completion of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System and Utility Shaft projects, and a reduction in weekly shipments” at WIPP, according to the document.
Overall funding for EM would be $8.1 billion, down from more than $8.4 billion in fiscal 2025.
The White House Office of Management and Budget released a package of charts and tables May 30 to buttress its so-called skinny budget outline on May 2. The Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are also among those tapped for significant reductions in the Donald Trump administration’s request.
The Oak Ridge appropriation would drop to $636 million in 2026 down from the fiscal 2025 enacted level of $695 million. That is a 9% reduction, according to the tables.
The Oak Ridge cut “reflects a ramp-down of cleanup activities at East Tennessee Technology Park,” which is also the old K-25 gaseous diffusion plant complex compound, according to the DOE request document.
The Savannah River Site in South Carolina would be nicked by 7% going to $1.68 billion in fiscal 2026, down from $1.82 billion in fiscal 2025. EM transferred its Savannah River landlord duties to the National Nuclear Security Administration on Oct. 1,2024.
With construction of saltstone disposal units (SDUs) winding down, less money is needed for that Savannah River line item, according to the administration document.
Other sites that would receive less EM funding in fiscal 2026 under the request are: Idaho National Laboratory with a 4% cut; Paducah Site in Kentucky by 9%; Portsmouth Site in Ohio by 3%; Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by 8%; Sandia National Laboratories by 55% and the Moab Tailing Site in Utah by 14%.
EM budget gainers would include Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California up 4% and Nevada National Security Site up 2%. Two EM sites would be flat funded: the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York State and the Energy Technology Engineering Center in California.
The Hanford Site in Washington state is earmarked for $3 billion in total funding but would still be slightly below last year’s enactment, according to the chart. The data lists a Richland and River Protection Operating Office, although the two officially merged into a unified Hanford Field Office on Oct. 1, 2024.
The Hanford budget request would support hot commissioning activities of the Low-Activity Waste Vitrification Facility at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant built by Bechtel, according to the administration request. The plant is should start converting some of the less radioactive tank waste into a glass form in August.
Defense Environmental Cleanup, by far the largest tranche of money in the DOE Office of Environmental Management, would be funded at $7.23 billion under the administration’s request. That figure is down from roughly $7.6 billion in each of the previous two fiscal years.
Again in the new cycle, Defense Environmental Cleanup would transfer a hefty sum, this time $278 million, to help shore up the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund (UED&D). The request for UED&D in fiscal 2026 is $814 million, down from $855 million in fiscal 2025 and $846 million in fiscal 2024.
The requested funds for Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup, which includes remediation of energy research sites, would be $379 million, down from $477 million in fiscal 2025, but up from $353 million in fiscal 2024.