Federal attendance down, anxiety up annual Waste Management

PHOENIX —After layoffs and buyouts and the possibility of a government shutdown, the Department of Energy presence was lighter than usual at the annual Waste Management Symposia here.

The buzz at a Sunday night reception here was that while DOE and its nuclear cleanup arm typically sends around 200 people, this year’s contingent was closer to 25.

DOE and the International Atomic Energy Agency work closely with Waste Management, which draws international experts in radioactive waste and nuclear issues to Arizona every March.

Other federal agencies that regularly take part in the event, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seemingly sent only skeleton crews. 

While Exchange Monitor did not hear any official attendance figures shared from the platform, it appeared the overall turnout was clearly below last year’s record crowd of 3,300. 

Despite White House-backing funding and travel restrictions, the Waste Management event worked with federal executives to “keep the critical attendees” from DOE in place for this week, said Fluor Corp. executive Greg Meyer, a member of the conference board. 

Given all the coverage of President Donald Trump’s efforts to downsize the government, federal contractors at Waste Management did not seem surprised by the scaled-down DOE presence. Like usual, all the big-name contractors across the DOE weapons complex appeared to be represented at this year’s event. 

Nevertheless, several contractor staff in the exhibit hall express disappointment at this year’s modest federal presence given ongoing cutbacks and travel restrictions. 

Current and former feds who did attend this year’s Waste Management, expressed disappointment that government agencies seemed to be losing much of their experienced staff as well as some young up-and-coming talent. 

During a Tuesday session on the “politics of cleanup,” veteran observers of Congress and the White House said the cuts in federal programs are far from over. Proposed reductions could intensify when the Trump administration comes out with its budget proposal for fiscal 2026, which would start Oct. 1. 

The Trump drive to curb federal government could conceivably spark more scrutiny of the cost and issues surrounding plans for increased plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as well as the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The need to modernize the nuclear stockpile has not gone away, panelists said. 

As of Thursday night, the Senate still had yet to vote on a stopgap funding proposal to keep the government running through Sept. 30.

Like last year’s Waste Management conference, there was lots of discussion about development of new nuclear power production both in the United States and overseas. The fate of the Joe Biden administration’s Cleanup to Clean Energy program appeared far from clear. The program encouraged leasing of underused DOE nuclear site lands for development of carbon-free electric power projects, such as solar.