Kansas City Plant: Background and Issues:

The Kansas City Plant (KCP) is located on approximately 122 acres of the 300-acre Bannister Federal Complex located within city limits, 12 miles south of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The Bannister Complex is owned by the federal General Services Administration (GSA), which leases the KCP portion to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency. NNSA’s funding for KCP over the last four years averaged around 400 million dollars, 98% for nuclear weapons programs, mostly components production. A Plant official has also stated that KCP receives approximately $130 million annually for “Work For Others,” virtually all for nuclear weapons as well.

KCP is operated by a subsidiary of Honeywell, Inc., under contract to NNSA. The Plant itself states that it is “NNSA’s highest rated production facility,” and produces and/or procures 85 per cent of all components that go into a nuclear warhead. It is also responsible for 85 percent of all the individual types of nuclear weapons components. The Plant specializes in the thousands of nonnuclear components, such as firing and arming systems, radars, guidance systems, reservoirs for tritium (a radioactive gas used to “boost” the destructive power of nuclear weapons), setting foams and adhesives.

KCP claims to be highly productive, in the words of management, averaging 5,000 shipments a month. Moreover, KCP states that it is having its busiest workload in 20 years, which is expected to last until the year 2015. Much of this work is geared towards “Life Extension Programs” costing billions to extend the active lifetimes of existing nuclear weapons 20-30 years, despite the obligation of all signatories to the 1970 NonProliferation Treaty to disarm nuclear stockpiles. Moreover, some of the nonnuclear components are significantly changing the military utility of existing nuclear weapons. A current example is the sub-launched W76, the single most prevalent warhead in the stockpile. Many of them have received or are slated to receive variable-altitude burst fuses and improved guidance systems that radically improve target accuracy.

This has the effect of changing a nuclear weapon of relatively modest yield (if there is such a thing), 100 kilotons, from a deterrent “counter value” (“city buster”) weapon to a “counterforce” (first strike against military and command and control centers) weapon because of detonating at ground level closer to the target. The resulting destructive power goes up exponentially. It is also far “dirtier” because of the soil and debris ejected into the atmosphere, coming back down as radioactive fallout. Amongst all the other nonnuclear components that KCP manufactures and/or procures, the Plant provides these “improved” fuses and guidance systems. KCP also planned to be very active in producing components for controversial new-design nuclear weapons, the so-called Reliable Replacement Warheads (RRWs). However, Congress recently deleted all RRW funding.

NNSA proposes to build a new half-billion dollar, 1 to 1.55 million square feet Plant within Kansas City limits, developed by private sector financing who would lease it to GSA, who in turn would sublease it to NNSA. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that proposed “major federal actions” be subject to public review, and a draft “environmental assessment” (EA) was officially noticed in the Federal register on December 10, 2007.

Nuclear Watch asserts that NNSA/GSA should withdraw this environmental assessment. NNSA should consider and decide upon the fate of the Kansas City Plant through its current Transformation Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement process. However, even that process should await the outcome of pending review of U.S. nuclear weapons policies, which could dramatically reduce the size and nature of the nuclear weapons stockpile. That, in turn, could dramatically reduce NNSA’s claimed need for expansive capabilities, eight individual sites, and their respective workloads. At this point, KCP’s long-range workload is currently unknown, especially given recent Congressional rejection of new-design nuclear weapons under the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead Program.

NRDC Notifies DOE of Intent to Sue over the Kansas City Plant

August 4, 2008 - The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) notfied the Department of Energy about serious concerns regarding the Department's decision, made in conjunction with the General Services Administration, to abandon the legacy of contamination at the Bannister Federal Complex in Kansas City, Missouri, and move the production and procurement of non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons to a new, privately developed and locally-financed facility in a greenfield outside the city.

DOE/GSA are to attempting to bail out of the Bannister Complex without an agreed plan and funding for cleaning it up, and without even studying the environmental clean-up requirements and alternatives, violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in the process. This unresolved environmental liability is a big negative for the City which detracts considerably from the enticing vision of 2100 “good jobs” moving to the new Botts Road plant.

GSA has also engaged in a multi-faceted violation of The Public Building Act by abusing its authority under the Act to seek funding for a privately-developed industrial facility, not a permitted government-occupied office building or warehouse, for a private contractor-employed -- not government -- workforce, who will labor in a nuclear-related enterprise that also involves the use of toxic chemicals, both of which are ineligible activities for funding under the Act.

GSA has represented this project to Congress as an annual "operating lease" for a modern private suburban office park development to be built on an agricultural greenfield site, while it simultaneously seeks local tax-favored public financing intended for urban blight removal, and issues bids solicitations and project descriptions to developers and the Kansas City Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (PIEA) promising a "20 year firm" capital lease commitment from the proposed "tenant," the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

Nuclear weapons are not a morally or politically appropriate target for such arcane bureaucratic maneuvers and pork-barrel funding ploys. And it's a sad day when a major metropolis like Kansas City resigns itself to equating the continued manufacture of Weapons of Mass Destruction with "good jobs at good wages" for its citizens.

Natural Resources Defense Council Notice of Intent to Sue over the Kansas City Plant [584KB] -August 4, 2008

Nuclear Watch New Mexico’s comprehensive comments [300KB] –January 14, 2008

NRDC comprehensive comments [383KB] –January 14, 2008

NukeWatch Power Point on the KCP EA [1.7MB] - January 7, 2008

Comprehensive NWNM notes on the KCP EA [300KB] -January 7, 2008

These notes are meant to assist:
1) Media interested in the proposal for a new Kansas City Plant and the final status and ultimate cleanup of the old plant; and
2) Citizens who may want to submit comprehensive comments on the KCP environmental assessment.

Basic 2-page Sample Comments (modify at will) [44KB] -Jauary 7, 2008

PeaceWorks Kansas City Press Release [116KB] –January 4, 2008

Notice of Availability of the KCP Draft Environmental Assessment -December 10, 2007

KC Business Journal: GSA seeks a developer to build and own new nuclear weapons plant.   -October 24, 2007

Kansas City Star article: Plan to build new plant goes to Congress -October 24, 2007

Nuclear Watch fact sheet on KCP [148kb] -October 19, 2007

Nuclear Watch Powerpoint Presentation on KCP [3.2MB] -October 19, 2007

NNSA's KCP Overview [3.6MB] -October 17, 2007

NNSA's KCP Waste Management [7.6MB] -October 17, 2007

NNSA's KCP Environmental Restoration pt 1[5.8MB] -October 17, 2007

NNSA's KCP Environmental Restoration pt 2[7.6MB] -October 17, 2007

Report from the New America Foundation describing DOE’s plans and highlighting the central role of the Kansas City Plant in Complex Transformation [176kb] - October, 2007

Nuclear Watch comments on the KCP EA [272KB] -May 30, 2007

Joint NukeWatch letter with Natural Resources Defense Council to NNSA regarding the Kansas City Plant [272KB] -May 21, 2007

Joint NukeWatch letter with Natural Resources Defense Council to NNSA regarding the Kansas City Plant [272KB] -May 21, 2007

NNSA Response Letter to Nuclear Watch New Mexico's FOIA Request for FY07 Kansas City Plant Ten Year Site Plan [632KB] -January 24, 2007

Excerpts from the Kansas City Plant Ten-Year Site Plans [168KB]

Kansas City Plant Ten Year Site Plan, Fiscal Year 2007:

FY07 Kansas City Plant Ten Year Site Plan, pt.1 [4.1MB] -March 24, 2006
FY07 Kansas City Plant Ten Year Site Plan, pt.2 [5.1MB] -March 24, 2006
FY07 Kansas City Plant Ten Year Site Plan, pt.3 [9.4MB] -March 24, 2006
FY07 Kansas City Plant Ten Year Site Plan, pt.4 [6.5MB] -March 24, 2006
FY07 Kansas City Plant Ten Year Site Plan, pt.5 [6.5MB] -March 24, 2006
FY07 Kansas City Plant Ten Year Site Plan, pt.6 [4.8MB] -March 24, 2006