Kansas City Nuclear Parts Plant Protest

A large protest Monday morning descended on the empty construction site for the planned Kansas City nuclear plant facility that is set to replace the old Bannister complex. Protestors met at the road entrance on Missouri Highway 150 near Botts Road in south Kansas City, then made way through the site and impeded construction machinery. There were a number who were willfully risking arrest as they blocked the construction implements after the police arrived and ordered via bullhorns to vacate the premises. As of the time of this posting I am unsure if actual arrests were made, though those unwilling to risk arrest, including myself, were slowly herded away from those staying behind, I suspect in order to prevent photography of any actual arrests and possible handcuffing. UPDATE: 14 protestors were in fact arrested (link to article at the Kansas City Star) UPDATE 2: May 2 2011 Protest Photos – CLICK HERE

The entire project is controversial and drawing ire due to the suspicious nature of not only the financing, via mis-use of urban blight funds, but also due to the extreme contamination at the old Bannister facility that this project will be replacing. Before leaving I talked with Maurice Copeland, who served as a manager  for Honeywell at the Bannister complex for 32 years. He noted that safety precautions and regulations at the plant were blatantly ignored during the Cold War years due to the high demand for nuclear weapons parts during that era. Now, it has been observed within the last several years that many long-time workers at the old Bannister facility have acquired illnesses caused by contamination at their workplace, in some cases resulting in death.

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- August 16, 2010

More information at nukewatch.org

This entry was posted on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 3:42 pm. It is filed under Uncategorized and tagged with ann suellentrop, bannister, contamination, honeywell, kansas city, kc, military industrial complex, non nuclear components, nuclear plant, nuke plant, protest, public financing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.