A REMARKABLE LAWSUIT IS FILED AGAINST MOVING NUCLEAR WEAPONS FACILITY IN KANAS CITY (KCP)

For decades we called it Bendix and now what is it, Honeywell? It's KCP the imaginatively named Kansas City Plant, where most of a nuclear weapon is manufactured. The radioactive parts are not manufactured at KCP but 85% of everything else in a bomb is. Without KCP there would be no new nuclear weapons or spare parts.

It seems that the nonradioactive nature of KCP's work often takes the headlines. That and a couple thousand good jobs make manufacturing instant hell a tempting proposition.

Apparently the United States is revamping its nuclear weapons production facilities and that involves a plan to move KCP from about 95th and Troost to the Botts Road near the southern limits of KCMO. This would involve moving 2/3rds of the equipment from the old site to the new, "smaller" site. I want to examine the claims before I am sold on the idea that it is really going to be a smaller site. I see the plans for a new smaller plant but what if the old one is largely empty and inactive anyway? It could represent a significant expansion hidden behind a veil of partial information and even, perhaps, misinformation.

I was amazed and pleased to see that a remarkable lawsuit has been filed by a number of local and national organizations and individuals seeking to compel certain actions to interrupt this move of the KCP nuclear weapons factory to Bannister Mall. The complainants argue that costs are greater with the move than without it and that numerous regulations have not been followed in making the decision in the first place.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times that good things like this are happening. Certainly we could use a smaller nuclear weapons family.

While this law suit doesn't directly address the issue of abolition of nuclear weapons, or at least the law is unlikely to recognize such appeals, the question is there for all of us. How much is a nuclear weapon really worth? Who is responsible if it is used?