A sprawling new plant in Kansas City, MO, the former soybean field makes the mechanical guts of America’s atomic warheads. Bigger than the Pentagon, full of futuristic gear and thousands of workers, the plant, dedicated last month, modernizes the aging weapons that the United States can fire from missiles, bombers and submarines.
The Washington Times reported that it is part of a nationwide wave of atomic revitalization that includes plans for a new generation of weapon carriers. A recent federal study put the collective price tag, over the next three decades, at up to a trillion dollars.
There are 21 major upgrades scheduled to nuclear facilities that have already been approved, yet in the five years since Obama took office, “the modernization push” to upgrade the nukes has been “poorly managed and financially unaccountable.”
“It estimated the total cost of the nuclear enterprise over the next three decades at roughly $900 billion to $1.1 trillion,” the journalists noted. “Policy makers, the [GAO] report said, ‘are only now beginning to appreciate the full scope of these procurement costs.’”
Energy.gov reported,
Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz was joined by the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, United States Air Force (Ret), U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver II and Vicky Hartzler, and other local officials today to officially dedicate the new National Security Campus in Kansas City.
As the manufacturer of non-nuclear components for the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the Kansas City National Security Campus is part of the Department’s larger nuclear security enterprise, which is responsible for stockpile stewardship, nuclear weapons dismantlement’s, and nuclear nonproliferation programs. The more cost-effective, energy-efficient National Security Campus is delivering a 25 percent reduction in operating costs and more than 50 percent reduction in the infrastructure footprint from 3.2 million square feet to 1.5 million square feet. Construction and relocation activities were completed ahead of schedule and under budget.
Modernizing a Nuclear Arsenal: The government is upgrading major nuclear weapon plants and laboratories, which employ more than 40,000 people.
According to the Washington Times report, an effort to ensure that the antiquated nuclear arsenal being held by the US remains secure has since expanded to the point that upwards of $1 TRILLION dollars is now estimated to be spent on various realms of the project during the next three decades, the likes of which are likely to keep the trove of American nukes intact and do little to discourage other nations from doing differently.
“The original idea was that modest rebuilding of the nation’s crumbling nuclear complex would speed arms refurbishment, raising confidence in the arsenal’s reliability and paving the way for new treaties that would significantly cut the number of warheads,” the journalists wrote. “Instead, because of political deals and geopolitical crises, the Obama administration is engaging in extensive atomic rebuilding while getting only modest arms reductions in return.”
According to that report, 21 major upgrades to nuclear facilities have already been approved, yet in the five years since Obama took office, “the modernization push” to upgrade the nukes has been “poorly managed and financially unaccountable.”
“It estimated the total cost of the nuclear enterprise over the next three decades at roughly $900 billion to $1.1 trillion,” the journalists noted. “Policy makers, the [GAO] report said, ‘are only now beginning to appreciate the full scope of these procurement costs.’”
Photos courtesy of Google.com
