President Donald Trump’s desire to build and test new nuclear weapons is coming to a small town in East Tennessee. Jonesborough, established in 1779 and often considered the state’s oldest town, may soon be home to a uranium processing facility under a $1.6 billion contract with the Department of Energy.
Under the contract, BWX Technologies (BWXT) will expand an existing munitions manufacturing facility to refine large amounts of depleted uranium. It’s a key ingredient in nuclear warheads that the Department of Energy says has been running low for years.
This comes as Trump allows a nuclear weapons treaty with Russia to expire, calls for renewed nuclear testing, and accuses China and Russia of conducting their own secret nuclear tests.
Federal policy is shifting in response, and small towns like Jonesborough find themselves at the center of a renewed global arms race — one that environmental advocates and community members worry has the potential to pollute local air and waterways.
Over 1,000 people live within a one-mile radius of the facility, according to archived federal data. Two public schools are less than three miles away. BWXT has a history of violating federal nuclear regulations, and the state is permitting the company to release hundreds of pounds of radioactive dust annually.
BWXT insists the community will be safe from environmental harm. The company says the expansion will provide millions in local economic impacts and add nearly 200 industrial jobs, but some locals say they’re considering leaving their homes if the project receives approval from the county government.
Around 5,600 people living nearby have signed onto a Change.org petition opposing the development, and even more from the surrounding region.
“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?”
At the tail-end of his first term, Trump directed the defense department to design and manufacture a new nuclear warhead for the first time since the end of the Cold War, but the department determined it would run out of depleted uranium by the end of the decade, effectively halting warhead production. The material is used as a shield surrounding the fissile material that creates a longer-lasting, more energetic and efficient explosion.
The issue was tabled during the Biden administration and renewed when Trump regained office. His administration directed the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing just weeks after BWXT was awarded its federal contract. The company says its expanded facility will be the only source of high purity depleted uranium for the federal government.
Now, caught between the will of the Trump administration and their constituents, 15 county commissioners in East Tennessee will decide whether Jonesborough will take part in manufacturing the next generation of nuclear weapons, weighing promised economic benefits against concerns for local health and safety.
Why Jonesborough?
Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Jonesborough is one of the oldest towns in Appalachia. With a population of around 6,000 people who take pride in their community’s title as “Tennessee’s Oldest Town,” the downtown looks like a Hallmark movie set.
When locals found out just days ahead of a zoning meeting about plans to expand a munitions factory on the edge of their historic town into a facility capable of refining large amounts of uranium, they were shocked. Local musician Gabriel Wilson, who owns property adjacent to BWXT, rode door-to-door on his four-wheeler warning his neighbors about the plans.
“History shows that you can't put this stuff near people,” Wilson said. “It just seems catastrophic.”
But for the Department of Energy, Jonesborough is a good fit. BWX Technologies already owns a facility on the edge of town, which has been operating since 1969. Interstate highway access is about 30 minutes away, and it’s a two-hour drive from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge where many of the nation’s nuclear weapons are manufactured and stored.
Jonesborough is also less than a day’s drive from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites at Paducah, Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio where the federal government plans to source the waste uranium for shipment to Jonesborough as a powder for refinement.
For many locals, the risks seem to outweigh the benefits. The only road into and out of BWXT’s complex is a narrow two-lane highway that winds through several neighborhoods. The property sits on Little Limestone Creek, a tributary of the Nolichucky River that supplies drinking water to many thousands of Tennesseans. If the creek were to flood as it did during Hurricane Helene in 2024, community members worry it could sweep radioactive dust downstream.
The White House declined to comment for this story, instead directing questions to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a division of the Department of Energy, which is responsible for the development of nuclear weapons.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the NNSA said the company’s contract will be subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, commonly known as NEPA. That means the administration will be required to produce a report assessing the potential environmental impacts of the project on Jonesborough and the surrounding region, though they did not specify when this report will be made available for local decision makers.
A record of violating nuclear regulatory safety rules
BWX Technologies is a manufacturing and engineering company headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia. Formerly known as Babcock & Wilcox, the group has repeatedly been tapped by the federal government throughout the years to supply it with munitions, nuclear fuels and other specialty materials for the military.The company has been the recipient of more than $25 billion in federal contracts, including for the management of Y-12 from 2000 to 2014.
In January 2025, BWXT purchased the Jonesborough site from Aerojet, a similar company that used the plant to manufacture ammunition for the military. Two months later, the Department of Energy announced it was accepting bids on a contract to supply Y-12 National Security Complex with high purity depleted uranium to build nuclear weapons. The company secured it by October.
BWXT insists their operation won’t be harmful to the people of Jonesborough or the environment. The company has promised “millions of dollars” in local economic impact to the region, along with around 175 industrial jobs.
“The project will provide a positive and sustained contribution to Washington County’s tax base and economic activity, driven by long-term operations, competitive wages, and integration into the local workforce and business community,” BWXT said in response to community questions about economic impacts.
The group promotes itself as a good neighbor that cares for the community. They’ve mailed flyers, calendars and other promotional materials to locals bearing the slogan, “Appalachia strong.” They organized a meeting at the Jonesborough Visitors Center to answer locals’ questions in December.
Despite efforts to court local community members, many residents say they’re concerned about BWXT’s track record. Since 2006, the company has violated U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules at least 50 times by not meeting safety standards at its facilities. These violations range in severity from chemical spills and mislabeled radioactive materials to situations that could have caused nuclear criticality accidents at its site in Lynchburg, Virginia. Residents who attended the public meeting in December say many of their questions about health and safety went unanswered.
BWXT declined an interview for this story and instead directed questions to their website. The Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom sent a list of questions to the company about its regulatory track record, the location of the project and community safety concerns. In a phone call and follow-up email, a spokesperson for BWXT declined to answer the questions, calling them biased, and asked for the reporter to be taken off of the story as a condition for an interview.
“We have been very open and transparent with the community, stakeholders and the media regarding our intentions for the new HPDU facility, its safety and how the facility is compatible with our current operations and location,” said John Dobken, a spokesperson for BWXT.
Now, weeks ahead of an important vote that could decide the fate of their project in Jonesborough, the company reported smoldering materials at its site in Erwin, Tennessee, and a worker at its existing Jonesborough facility was injured on the job.
‘I feel like I’m being evicted’
Susanne Fort lives on a small farm in Telford, about one mile from Jonesborough. She and her husband moved there from Iowa 15 years ago after finding a historic brick home dating back to the Civil War.
Little Limestone Creek runs through the middle of their property, just a few thousand feet downstream from BWXT’s munitions plant. While the company says it won’t emit any liquid waste, they have received permission from Tennessee’s environmental regulator to release over 250 pounds of radioactive dust each year.
“Everything's going to be so contaminated,” Fort said. “Where do you get clean water? Where are you going to get clean pasture and hay?”
Depleted uranium is not as radioactive as the enriched material used in nuclear fuels. But it’s still dangerous to human health. The material is a severe health hazard that can damage kidneys and other parts of the body if ingested or inhaled, according to the EPA. In 2013, Al Jazeera found that depleted uranium munitions discarded by the U.S. military in Iraq were causing higher cancer rates and birth defects in the country.
In a statement, the Sierra Club’s Tennessee chapter said depleted uranium dust can contaminate air and drinking water, causing birth defects and lung damage.
“We believe the risk of health effects to the surrounding community from inhalation or ingestion of DU outweighs the benefits of producing the metal in a populated area,” Conservation Chair Axel Ringe said.
The fear of these potential health effects is forcing people like Fort to consider moving away from Jonesborough for the very first time. Her cattle drink from Little Limestone Creek, which also provides the water she uses for her farm.
“I don't know if we can stay because this was our dream,” Fort said. “And how do you make a dream happen when they contaminate everything around you?”
Anna Wright and her husband, Trey, moved to Jonesborough from Johnson City nearly 10 years ago. They wanted to live on a quiet farm where they could raise two daughters, Diana and Helen. The family keeps chickens and bees, and sells their own honey. When they learned about BWXT’s plans to process uranium less than a mile from their home, they knew they would have to move away to protect their children’s health.
“I feel like I'm being evicted,” Trey said. “[I’m] not technically being forced out, but in reality, I'm being forced out. And I haven't done anything to warrant that.”
Other communities in the United States have been selected for industrial development as the Trump administration’s nuclear policies shift. After decades of cleanup work to remove pollution left behind by the Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge has received billions of dollars in investments from nuclear energy and industrial manufacturers in the last five years.
In Paducah, Ky., the federal government is seeking to contract out enrichment of uranium to a private company for the first time, drawing criticism from some community members who are concerned over environmental impacts and the development's connections to billionaire investor and Trump ally Peter Thiel.
Losing faith in the democratic process
To many in Jonesborough, pushing back feels almost hopeless. Despite thousands of signatures on a verified petition opposing the project and sustained community turnout at county commission meetings, many local elected officials remain open to the idea of allowing the project to proceed.
BWXT has allowed each county commissioner responsible for the zoning decision to tour its current site. Company representatives have even told local officials they can still proceed with their federal project without rezoning approval, leading some to believe their fight is hopeless.
Most Washington County commissioners did not respond to a request for comment. Jodi Jones, a commissioner who represents parts of nearby Johnson City, said she takes community concerns seriously but wants her decision to be based in fact, not speculation.
“I have an interest in the health of my community, probably above all,” Jones said. “But I’m holding these two values together. One around valuing the community and their input, and the other around fairly deliberating and making sure that anyone who wants their voice to be heard will be heard by me.”
When asked about the national stakes of this project, Jones said she tries to keep her thoughts about federal policy and nuclear weapons compartmentalized.
“I don't feel like those deliberations are helpful for the decision that I'm tasked with in this decision making role,” she said.
In January, the county’s planning board recommended the project be denied. But the larger commission still has the final say, and has again delayed the vote. That frustrates locals such as Luther Miller, a Vietnam War veteran who’s lived in Jonesborough with his wife for over 50 years. Their house sits less than 100 feet away from the BWXT site.
A frequent Republican voter, he says he’s upset with both the state and federal government for abandoning nuclear arms treaties and moving forward with new weapons.
“I feel like every commissioner on that panel should say no, there should be no question about it,” Miller said. “We have got enough nuclear junk right now to destroy the world a dozen times over. And if we have a war and it goes nuclear, there won't be enough people left in the United States to even say hello to each other.”
Despite his concerns, Miller said his commissioner called him and told him he would vote in favor of the project. He’s considered moving away, but he’s afraid it’ll be too hard on his wife who is in poor health and needs constant care.
“[BWXT] have said that they would be willing to buy out anybody along here,” Miller said. “But I'm 80 years old. My wife's 80 years old. Where we gonna go?”
Frustration with their elected officials' lack of decision-making has developed into a political movement to oust commissioners who defy the desires of constituents. It’s also inspired younger community members who aren’t old enough to vote to get involved.
The Wrights told their 7-year-old daughter, Diana, about the project a couple of months ago. When she learned she might have to move away from her home, she immediately wrote a speech she delivered before the planning commission in January.
“I don’t understand everything about uranium or money,” Diana told commissioners. “But I do understand what it feels like to lose something you love.”
The next Washington County Commission hearing on the proposed development is set for March 23.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify details of BWXT's track record and the nature of depleted uranium.
This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky and NPR.
