KC’s nuclear bomb parts plant is ramping up significantly. Share your voice | Opinion
There is a new federal government plan to increase production of plutonium pits — the trigger that starts the bomb explosion in nuclear weapons — to 80 pits per year in each of the next 50 years. This is in comparison with the current production of fewer than 30 per year. The sites that are supposed to work together on what amounts to a new nuclear arms race include Kansas City’s federal nuclear bomb parts plant, managed by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies. That is the Kansas City National Security Campus located in the south part of the city.
The recent allocation of taxpayer funds for this National Nuclear Security Administration site reveals a huge jump from the 2025 budget from $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion in 2026. The plant is now doubling in size as it produces electrical and mechanical parts for seven new nuclear weapons programs simultaneously.
Learning of this renewed buildup may cause many to feel helpless and unprepared as to how to oppose this unsettling trend. Thankfully, there is a way for people to begin to question federal government plans to spend the astronomical total cost of the new nuclear arms race: $1.7 trillion over the next decade. Several grassroots organizations successfully sued the NNSA under the National Environmental Protection Act to force taxpayer oversight of health and safety impacts of these federal plans.
There is a July 14 deadline for the public to submit questions and comments to the NNSA. This initial round of scoping comments determines the range of issues that will be covered during the in-person hearings to be held in Kansas City and four other cities as early as February 2026.
This is the public’s chance to raise concerns, such as:
- Do we really need new plutonium pits?
- What will be the health and safety effects on workers and communities?
- What radiation risks will there be to transport deadly plutonium on our roadways and waterways?
- Where will its dangerous radioactive waste be stored afterward?
- What agency will monitor worker and public safety and health?
- How can this massive use of taxpayer funds be justified when so many need housing, food, health care, education and other human needs?
We need a mass movement of people to speak up and hold the government accountable. As a pediatric nurse, I am aware of the particular harm radioactivity has on women, pregnant women, fetuses, babies, children and girls especially. Writing to the National Nuclear Security Administration is our opportunity to speak out for future generations.
Comments can be sent by email or postal mail by July 14.
Address email to PitPEIS@nnsa.doe.gov and in the subject line put: 2025-08140 (90 FR 19706) PEIS for Pit Production Scoping Public Comments
Written comments should be sent to:
Ms. Jade Fortiner
NEPA Document Manager
National Nuclear Security Administration
Office of Pit Production Modernization
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave. S.W.
Washington, D.C., 20585