In mid-October, local musician Gabriel Wilson rode door-to-door on the outskirts of Jonesborough warning his neighbors about a nearby depleted uranium plant’s plans to expand.
He had just received a letter from the Washington County Regional Planning Commission letting him know that a rezoning request would reclassify a large swath of land adjacent to his farm for high impact industrial use. BWX Technologies wants to more than double the footprint of its ordnance plant there and use it to manufacture radioactive metals for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.
The commission was set to vote on the proposal at the Washington County Courthouse just days after Wilson’s self-described “Paul Revere-style” ride.
“I hoped maybe like, a dozen people would show up to the courthouse,” Wilson said. “And that Tuesday, 200 people showed up … [It] totally blew my mind.”
The commission deferred the rezoning request to January due to the intense local pushback. Wilson saw it as a win, and as a sign that community members could do something about their situation.
Ever since, residents of Jonesborough have continued to organize against the plans for BWXT’s expansion in Tennessee’s oldest town.
The company says its facility will be the only one in the country to supply the U.S. government with high purity depleted uranium, a type of radioactive metal used in munitions and nuclear weapons. In September, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration awarded a contract worth $1.6 billion to BWXT, the successor to the company involved with the 1979 nuclear reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island.
As part of the agreement, trucks will ship waste uranium product from EPA Superfund sites in Ohio and Kentucky, purify it in Jonesborough, then deliver it to Y-12 as high purity depleted uranium metal for use in nuclear weapons over the next 10 years. The company says it will add about 175 jobs in a town of 6,000.
Some locals are worried about the potential for radioactive materials to contaminate the ground and water, however. The facility sits in the middle of a rural neighborhood, with a high school less than two miles away. And if the footprint of the depleted uranium processing plant expands, it will sit atop a floodplain that feeds into the Nolichucky River.
“It would be fine if it was up out somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but here it is in a neighborhood with children and schools and grocery stores,” said local resident Debra Lallo. “My concern is, what's going to happen? Is it going to affect us?”
Tennessee elected officials have been courting companies and strengthening partnerships with the federal government for years in an effort to shape the state into the home of new nuclear developments. In the last year alone, five nuclear energy projects have been announced in the state, mostly centered around Oak Ridge.
The nuclear industry has developed in rural East Tennessee towns in the past, sometimes with harmful consequences.
Since 1959 a nuclear fuel refinery in Unicoi County, which employs over 1,200 people, has repeatedly leaked radioactive materials into the ground and water, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Today, that site is owned by BWXT. The company has plans to expand after receiving multiple separate contract awards from the federal government worth over $1.5 billion for the delivery of naval nuclear reactor fuel.
While the Jonesborough facility won’t handle enriched uranium, it still has the potential to emit radioactive materials. According to permits filed with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the expanded facility could release over 250 pounds of radioactive uranium dust into the air each year. While this is well-within permitted limits, it’s leaving many residents concerned about the potential for contamination.
A spokesperson for BWXT could not be immediately reached by WUOT News for comment. In a September news release, the company says the new facility would not release hazardous liquids into the environment.
“BWXT is committed to continuous improvements in our manufacturing processes to achieve maximum sustainability and environmental stewardship within our shared communities,” the release read.
While the company has won its contract with the federal government and received approval from the state’s environmental regulator, it still has to clear local zoning hurdles before it can begin construction.
In an effort to put a stop to the expanded Jonesborough project, Wilson and other locals started a group called Protect Jonesborough. With more than 2,000 members on Facebook, they’ve managed to get over 4,000 signatures from residents of Jonesborough and neighboring municipalities on an online petition urging local elected leaders to put a stop to the re-zoning plan.
“History shows that you can't put this stuff near people,” Wilson said. “It just doesn't make sense, let alone in a watershed, let alone in a 40 acre floodplain. It just seems catastrophic.”
In response to local criticism, BWXT held an informational poster display event at the Jonesborough Visitors Center on December 11. As over 100 protestors from the local community began arriving in the parking lot, the company's private security kept watch at doors to the Visitors Center and local police encircled the building.
Skeptics such as Mike Deurso didn’t find the event helpful. Corporate representatives stood near posters in a meeting room, but wouldn’t answer direct questions from locals about potential contaminants or BWXT’s checkered past. They were quick to point out the boost the plant will purportedly bring to the local economy, however.
“If you're coming here to answer the questions from the public, you should be better informed,” Deurso said. “If you're just being here as a puppet, that's not what we want.”
BWXT has submitted a revised rezoning request to the Regional Planning Commission reducing the overall area to be reclassified as high impact industrial. Wilson and other neighbors say they are still concerned about the site's location.
Alyssa Sanders lives two miles away from the BWXT site in Jonesborough. She’s worried about the impacts it could have on her young daughter as she grows up.
“I'm hoping they listen to the people, that they see this grassroots effort that's happened in a matter of weeks and that they know we don't want it here,” she said. “I’m not anti-nuclear. I know we need to make advancements in technology, and this is something that’s needed, but not here. Not next to families and homes and schools.”
The Washington County Regional Planning Commission is currently scheduled to consider BWXT’s rezoning request on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026.
