Sites Within the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex
updated 6 Oct 2021

The U.S. nuclear weapons complex consists of a national industrial infrastructure for the physical production of nuclear weapons and their deployment systems, as well as the scientific-engineering workforces that are responsible for the research and design of nuclear weapons, and the bureaucratic workforce that integrates the nuclear weapons complex into U.S. military planning and operations.

The industrial sites of the nuclear weapons complex include the locations for the mining and refinement of uranium, uranium enrichment, processing in reactors to produce plutonium, sites for the research and design of nuclear weapons, the production of weapons components, including plutonium pits, the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons, and sites for the final assembly and storage of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons are a multi-billion dollar a year enterprise in the United States. Every household in the U.S. contributes approximately $185 per year to the nuclear weapons complex through federal taxes. The workforce of the nuclear weapons complex at its main sites now consists of approximately 51,000 persons spread across the United States working in the main labs, factories, and offices responsible for the bomb.

These main sites within the nuclear weapons complex are composed of eight GOCO sites (Government Owned, Contractor Operated) overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration, a quasi-independent office within the U.S. Department of Energy, and run by an independent contractor. NNSA Headquarters, and the NNSA Service Center In Albuquerque are federal facilities with no contracting operator.

Overview of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex

• Interactive Map of major nuclear weapons sites

• Los Alamos National Laboratory [Research, Design, Production]
  (Los Alamos, New Mexico)
  
  
• Sandia National Laboratory [Research, Design, Production]
  (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
  
  
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [Research, Design]
  (Livermore, California)
  
  
• NNSA Headquarters [Administration]
  (Washington, D.C.)
  
  
• Y-12 Plant [Production]
  (Oakridge, Tennessee)
  • NNSA's Uranium Processing Facility (UPF)
    
    
• Kansas City Plant [Production]
  (Kansas City, Missouri)
  
  
• Pantex Plant [Production]
  (Amarillo, Texas)
  
  
• Savannah River Site [Production]
  (Aiken, South Carolina)
  
  
• Nevada Test Site/Nevada National Security Site [Weapons Testing]
  (60 miles NW of Las Vegas, Nevada)

Los Alamos Study Group • 2901 Summit Place NE • Albuquerque, NM 87106 • 505-265-1200

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