On April 15th, the Catholic Workers of PeaceWorksKC protested outside the Kansas City National Security Campus against its proposed expansion of the facility. About 50 demonstrators gathered near the entrance, holding signs and shouting anti-nuclear slogans. Protesters argued that resources should be used to address climate change and other global challenges rather than building bombs.
Ten people were arrested, with three arrested for trespassing on a construction site and seven for trespassing onto campus land.
The protest coincided with Tax Day and also came as the Missouri House considered a bill to offer a sales tax exemption for materials needed for the facility’s expansion, which has bipartisan support from local lawmakers who emphasize its economic benefits for the region.
Kansas City’s Historical Role in Nuclear Energy
Harry S. Truman is the only president to be born in Missouri and the only President to have used nuclear weapons thus far in war. To ensure complete and utter surrender by the Japanese, President Truman tapped into the Manhattan Project. On August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the world’s first atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima. A few days later, the US sent a second bomber to Nagasaki. The total loss of life is unknowable, but low estimates stipulate that at least 110,000 died as a direct result of the bombings. Anti-nuclear activists would put the number of direct deaths up to 250,000. The United States has still not yet apologized for their decision to drop two nuclear weapons.
However, the number of lives lost to the proliferation of nuclear weapons does not stop abroad. Maurice Copeland knows the effects all too well. In 1968 after being discharged from the army after the Vietnam War, Copeland came to work at the Kansas City Plant, also known as the Bannister Road nuclear plant, formerly housed on Bannister Road and Troost. The KC Plant was, at the time, responsible for upwards of 85% of all nuclear warhead component manufacturing. While the development of the nuclear components was not completed on site, the development of the carriages to hold them were.
Maurice Copeland was a supervisor and machinist at the KC Plant for over 30 years. While working there, he and his co-workers were exposed to over 2000 chemicals in the production of nuclear arms: benzene, beryllium, trichloroethylene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos, mercury, lead, depleted uranium and many more. All of the listed items are known Group 1 carcinogens, meaning that there is enough evidence to conclude that exposure to these compounds increases the risk of cancer in humans. Workers at the plant were not told about the devastating effects of the chemicals they were working with.
“l handed [cancer] causing chemicals to the people that work for me.” Copeland said. “I gave it to them, told them to go make this part. They took that…contamination and exposure home with them.” Copeland speaks with a rasping voice and an intermittent cough.
The public was not made aware of the effects of these chemicals until 2000 after Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13179, which instituted the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Act. The Act attempts to provide medical coverage to over 1,440 workers who have fallen ill due to ill conceived worker safety precautions by the federal government and its contractors.
“When I went to the army, the army told me the very first day–before I even went to bed and basic training–you are being put in a situation to defend this country and you made that. Thank you. That is respectful. That is very respectful.” Copeland continues. “The United States government and the nuclear weapons industry was very fair and still very, very disrespectful that they did not tell us for 70 years. All of these cancers, respiratory problems and dermatological problems that we were having, working in that industry. That may have been the cause.”
Kansas City remains a pivotal hub for nuclear weaponry. Just south of Kansas City lies the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Founded in 1949, the KCNSC now produces at least 80% of the non-nuclear parts for the US nuclear weapons stockpile. The KCNSC has been solely operated by Honneywell for the past 75 years since the NNSA (originally named the Atomic Energy Commission) was established in 1946. Kansas City’s National Security Campus is planning to double in size this year and eventually hire an additional 1,000 workers for a total of 8,800 employees through an initiative called the KC NExT project: as many workers that worked during the Cold War. As part of KC NExT, The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has prepared the Site-wide Environmental Assessment for the Kansas City National Security Campus to spend over $1 billion dollars over the next 30 years to make all new types of nuclear weapons. The Missouri senate is preparing for building with a Kansas City wide sale tax exemption for all building materials for this project. Bill SB 1388 is currently out for perfection, or in the process of making amendments or revisions in the Missouri senate.
The KCNSC is located at 14520 Botts Rd, Kansas City, MO 64147.
Kansas City is one of the 8 major sites that together make U.S. nuclear weapons.
In November 2023, the NNSA found that based on their findings surveying the area determined that the proposed expansion would have “no significant environmental impact” and that there would not be any significant effect on the quality of the human environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The Defender reached out for comment. “The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is pursuing a multi-year, multi-phase plan to incrementally expand its manufacturing capacity and office space necessary to sustain continued production growth at the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC). Since completing the move to the KCNSC Botts Road Campus location in 2014, the KCNSC has experienced significant growth in workload and personnel to support NNSA’s planned modernization of the nuclear deterrent.” An NNSA spokesperson said.
“This expansion of operations does not change our mission scope at the KCNSC, but rather provides additional space to accommodate additional volume of work in support of NNSA’s national security mission. There are no plans to expand production of chemicals. At all KCNSC facilities, industrial wastes captured by an Industrial Wastewater Pre-Treatment Facility would continue to be disposed of in accordance with applicable Federal, State, and local regulations.” The NNSA spokesperson continued.
The movement to destroy–and end the continued creation–of nuclear weaponry
There exists a moral dilemma in creating nuclear weapons. Nuclear arms both fully and partially tested since 1945 would have a denotation diameter from Topeka to Warrensburg with an estimated fatality rate of at least 10 times more. As of early 2019, more than 90% of the world’s 13,865 nuclear weapons were owned by either the United States or Russia, with Russia edging out on top with 5,977 nuclear warheads. The United States has 5,428 warheads. Internationally, support for nuclear arms has waned. However, the U.S. government decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a binding agreement for negotiations for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, supported by more than 120 nations.
In an era marked by the rise of insecure strongman leaders both in the United States and internationally, it’s not difficult to envision a scenario where these leaders escalate tensions to the point of sparking a nuclear conflict as a reckless display of dominance. Author Annie Jacobsen explores this scenario in her new book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, which guides readers through the United States’ emergency procedures in case of a worldwide nuclear apocalypse. Spoiler, it does not end well.
“This is an abomination, and we must resist!” Ann Suellentrop, anti-nuclear arms activist states in her speech on March 6, 2024 “A new nuclear arms race is starting in Kansas City! We must resist!” to the survivors and descendants in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ann Suellentrop is from a small town near Wichita. She moved to KC in 1972 to go to nursing school at Avila University and has worked as a pediatric nurse for 45 years. She joined a local organization called PeaceWorks Kansas City fifteen years ago after learning about Kansas City’s nuclear bomb parts plant. PeaceWorks KC is a member of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. Their annual lobbying DC Days is May 19-24 this year. A coalition from Kansas City is attending.
She sees nuclear arms development as a public health crisis. “I see this as my duty as a nurse to protect children and public health. I have been arrested three times for protesting by trespassing at the plant in civil disobedience.” She continues. “For many years, most people in Kansas City didn’t even know about this nuclear bomb parts plant, and many still don’t know, because the workers are told to keep it a secret.”
After retiring, she began protesting full time with PeaceWorks Kansas City. In the past 15 years, approximately 200 people have been arrested at the facility for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience as part of our protests against the spread of nuclear weapons in Kansas City. “We need a worldwide mass movement to convince our leaders to get rid of nuclear weapons before they get rid of us. Each person must do what they can to learn about the issues and do whatever they can to oppose them.”
Suellentrop acts as a board member for Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), a collective of thousands of doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers and concerned humans in the United States. “We educate the public and elected officials about nuclear weapons and climate catastrophe, the two greatest dangers to public health. We know a nuclear war would destroy hospitals and healthcare workers, so our motto is “We must prevent what we cannot cure”. We have a campaign called “Back From the Brink” where we ask our elected city officials to pass a proclamation supporting steps to get rid of nuclear weapons, including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”
Suellentrop invites midwest Catholic Workers to Kansas City for their annual spring Faith and Resistance Retreat April 12-15 for a weekend of learning about the nuclear bomb parts factory and protesting there. More information can be found at http://jerusalemfarm.org. Suellentrop also encourages folx to join anti-nuclear weapons organizations to fight for our collective planet and the lives on that planet. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) is a network of 30 organizations whose members reside near the locations of nuclear weapons production and waste. They engage in lobbying efforts each spring in Washington D.C., advocating against nuclear weapons and for enhanced cleanup of nuclear waste. Audiences can read more about how to protest against the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the “Warheads to Windmills”.
Warheads to Windmills is a new movement advocating for the conversion of nuclear weapons funding, skilled jobs and resources to industries that provide solutions for climate catastrophe, such as solar and wind power, improved public transport and the like.
“Nuclear weapons are capable of killing all life on earth.” Ann stated factually during her speech. “They are an insane death wish, and they rob us of the resources we need to solve global warming and to meet human needs that give us a happy, healthy life.”
