Publication

This report addresses the proposal to modernize and upgrade the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapons complex, with a special focus on the Kansas City Plant. The author states that in considering how best to plan for the future of the Kansas City Plant, it is important to consider one key fact: the Reliable Replacement Warhead, the central rationale for an upgrade of the entire nuclear weapons complex, may not make it past US Congress, much less a new presidential administration in Washington. The paper states that given such realities, it would be prudent to come up with alternative scenarios for the use of the current Kansas City Plant in the event that the NNSA’s ambitious plans are not implemented.