CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) Carlsbad officials are crying foul over a decision to transfer record storage — and jobs — for the government's troubled underground nuclear waste dump out of state. The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports that in a letter Tuesday to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, city and county officials called the decision a “crime against taxpayers,'' and said the government contractor that runs the Waste Isolation Pilot Project is abandoning southeastern New Mexico during the “most significant setback of the project's 15-year history.''
The change comes as the dump is indefinitely shuttered by a mysterious radiation leak that contaminated 21 workers. Nuclear Waste Partnership on May 7 announced it had awarded the contract to handle all WIPP archives and documents to a Tennessee-based company, TFE.
TFE replaces S.M. Stoller Corp., which employs about 90 people in Carlsbad.
