The Kansas City National Security Campus, the nation’s manufacturing hub for the non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons, said Monday it will take a baby step back toward normal operations during the COVID-19 pandemic by asking some people to return to work on-site.
“The Kansas City National Security Campus is expanding its mission critical work activities,” according to a statement from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) facility. “Employees who are being asked to return for an onsite assignment are being notified by their managers. We are maintaining safe and secure operations through the rigorous application of social distancing and other CDC [Center for Disease Control] guidance.”
The former Kansas City Plant started limiting on-site personnel and expanding teleworking on March 29. Although some personnel will now be asked to return to the facility, those who can telework will continue to do so.
It wasn’t clear how many people would return to the Kansas City National Security Campus this week, or when all of them would be back at their regular posts. Spokespersons for the facility, which is managed by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, did not respond to requests for comment by deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Normally, about 4,000 people work at the site.
Kansas City, Mo., itself has been harder hit by COVID-19 than the host region of other, more remote NNSA weapons production sites: the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.; the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas; and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Cases in Kansas City spiked sharply in April, rising to nearly 420 at deadline Monday as of Monday morning, according to data tracked by the Johns Hopkins University. Kansas City reported slightly fewer near cases of the viral disease last week than the week before, according to data tracked by the Kansas City Department of Health. The city remains under a stay-at-home order through May 15, though workers in essential industries such as nuclear weapons production are still expected to show up for their shifts, if asked.