The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said it completed the first phase of its Kansas City Non-Nuclear Expansion Transformation (KC NeXT) at its Kansas City National Security Campus.
“In a rapidly changing national security environment, modernizing the enterprise to be more adaptive, agile, responsive, and resilient is more critical than ever before,” NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams said in an agency press release. “The KC NExT project is one of the latest examples of how innovative approaches coupled with strategic investments in our infrastructure are accelerating our mission.”
KC NeXT is a real estate acquisition project that will add two million square feet of office space to the site, and includes a 700-seat classified office building, the release said. Phase 1 began in 2024, and Phase 2 construction began at the end of 2025. The release also said NNSA officially “assumed property ownership ahead of schedule and on budget.”
Shekita Robinson, Kansas City’s acting manager, said in a panel for Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit in January that Phase 1 would be complete by June. Eric Wollerman, chief executive officer of Kansas City’s prime contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies said the Phase 1 office building would be purchased by NNSA “later this year.”
Kansas City’s website said Phase 3 agreements, which will involve “support facilities” at the campus, will be finalized in the spring. The site added the phases are designed to be operational after completion of each one without having to wait for subsequent phases to finish.
At Wednesday’s House Appropriations committee markup of the fiscal 2027 Energy and Water budget, Missouri Republican Mark Alford praised the bill for “including language supporting the KC NeXT project and the National Security Campus as a whole.”
“These forward-looking investments will strengthen Americans’ nuclear deterrence, while maintaining the safety, the security, and the effectiveness of our great nation’s nuclear weapons enterprise,” Alford said. “KC NeXT is more than an expansion; it is a foundational investment in the future of our national security.”
Kansas City National Security Campus is NNSA’s production complex in charge of non-nuclear components, including over 80% of all components for weapon modernization and sustainment.