Luther “Sunny” Miller, approaching 80, once worked at Aerojet, a rocket and missile manufacturer literally in his backyard. He is unable to prove it, but he believes his thyroid and bladder issues, along with his wife’s kidney disease, are linked to the plant.
Last year, BWX Technologies, a national nuclear supplier, acquired the factory in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and revealed plans for a major expansion. The new facility will transform depleted uranium oxide from the Department of Energy into high-purity depleted uranium. The 10-year, $1.6-billion contract aims to supply the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with the necessary material to sustain the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Despite the company’s pledge to create 175 permanent jobs locally, Miller and many residents were upset.
“They’re going to turn over the most beautiful parts of Tennessee into a nuclear waste area,” Miller expressed.
However, for others, the job opportunities make the nuclear “renaissance” in East Tennessee, centered around Oak Ridge, attractive. BWXT’s expansion is part of what state officials hope will ignite an economic revival, drawing on the legacy of the Manhattan Project. Significant investments are already being funneled into a region with substantial expertise in nuclear energy and weapons development.
Tennessee is now among five contenders for a Department of Energy “nuclear lifecycle innovation campus,” potentially becoming the focal point of a federal initiative to address residual waste from electricity generation via atom splitting. Yet, the history that makes Tennessee appealing is marred by contamination, illnesses, and accidents, causing caution about what a nuclear renaissance could entail.
Nuclear waste presents a logistical and public relations challenge. Spent fuel, remaining radioactive for millennia, is stored in secure concrete containers indefinitely, as no permanent repository exists. The government has long aimed to establish an underground repository, but Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the primary option, faced political and public resistance. The Trump administration’s intent to quadruple nuclear energy output underscores the urgency of solving this issue, as 85 interim storage sites in the nation already hold over 86,000 tons of radioactive waste, enough to fill a football field nearly 10 yards deep.
The nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses aim to tackle this problem. Instead of imposing a site on an unwilling community, the Department of Energy invited states to volunteer as potential hosts. These centers would encompass more than waste storage, including uranium enrichment, fuel fabrication, spent fuel reprocessing and recycling, and energy generation. Federal officials emphasized waste management as the project’s cornerstone. In July, Tennessee joined Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho in advancing discussions with the DOE.
Tennessee’s competitive edge dates back over 80 years to the end of World War II and the dawn of the nuclear era. The federal government designated Oak Ridge, then a remote Appalachian farming community, as a key site for the Manhattan Project. The town expanded to include various nuclear weapons development sites, including a reactor.
Ronald Daily, BWXT’s president of operations, noted that the company and others are building on the region’s legacy of contributing to national energy security and defense. “Appalachia was key to the U.S. developing a defense power in a time frame like no other because of the industrious nature of the people of Appalachia,” he stated.
Oak Ridge has transitioned from its rural roots to a concrete sprawl with a mix of museums, highway-exit chains, and top-secret facilities. Today, the Y-12 Security Complex and the laboratory, both federally managed, remain, surrounded by private companies eager to benefit from the area’s talented engineers. The landscape is also dotted with lush public lands.
For the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, this moment represents an opportunity to use its expertise for ongoing local and national public benefit.
“Part of Oak Ridge’s role is that we have expertise in all parts of that fuel cycle,” said Joe Hoagland, a physical chemist and associate laboratory director. “We know how to enrich it. We know how to use it. We know how to store it. We know how to transport it, and we understand the chemistries around how to recycle it.”
East Tennessee used to house a few legacy companies like GE and Westinghouse, which provided technologies for traditional utilities, Hoagland noted. Today, it resembles more of a startup environment, driven by growing electricity demand that presents opportunities for new energy ventures.
Expectations for local benefits are high. Over the past decade, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has secured $10 billion in investment to attract new companies and create 3,000 jobs in the region, according to Braden Stover, the agency’s nuclear advisor. Companies such as BWXT, Orano, and Centrus are involved in various uranium enrichment processes.
Officials say this burgeoning sector could generate tens of thousands of jobs, ranging from construction and manufacturing to engineering and research. They also envision an educational pipeline to prepare local residents for these roles. “The second graders of today are going to be the ones that actually are coming in to work at these facilities,” Stover said. “We need to get to them and just let them know, Hey, here is what is coming.”
Yet, the region’s extensive industrial and nuclear history has left another legacy, and opposition to the nuclear revival is rooted in memories of past damage to East Tennessee’s people and landscape.
For some, the harm began with the eviction of 3,000 farmers to create space for the Manhattan Project. Concerns have only increased over the years as the risks of living alongside the facility and its support structures became evident.
Previous studies have linked patterns of neurological disorders, cancers, and fatal respiratory diseases to workplace exposures at the now-defunct K-25 plant, which enriched uranium from 1943 until 1985. The government continues to clean up contamination from decades of nuclear weapons production in Oak Ridge. Nuclear Fuel Services, a uranium processing plant in Erwin and a BWXT subsidiary, has a history of leaks, potentially harmful dust, and groundwater contamination.
Distrust also stems from incidents outside the nuclear industry. In 2008, 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash spilled at the Kingston Fossil Plant, initially built to power the Oak Ridge war complex. Coal ash cleanup workers were not informed of the dangers they faced or given protective gear. Over the last decade, many workers exposed to the toxic waste have fallen ill, and some have died of rare cancers.
These histories have fueled skepticism and fear, especially as the Trump administration has simplified and revised radioactive waste storage and siting regulations. Valerie Thomas, who researches nuclear engineering and environmental impacts at the Georgia Institute of Technology, finds these changes concerning.
“There are two reasons we want nuclear regulations to be very strong. One is, no, you don’t want to have errors,” Thomas said. “The second is if people think the regulations aren’t very strong, they’re not going to want nuclear power and nuclear facilities.”
This distrust has already influenced opposition to the nuclear industry’s expansion in East Tennessee. In early March, hundreds of Claiborne County residents packed a town hall to oppose a proposed nuclear graphite facility, and their efforts successfully halted the proposal.
This history was at the forefront for many in Jonesborough, where residents voiced concerns about waste storage and uranium dust. Many attended local county commission meetings to oppose BWXT’s proposal and contested zoning rules that would facilitate its approval. BWXT addressed community questions about the plant’s waste storage plans, but many locals found the answers unsatisfactory. A late March meeting at the Washington County courthouse left many residents feeling angry and hurt. Will Manning, a 42-year-old knifemaker and father, spent the winter canvassing Jonesborough, encouraging neighbors to oppose the facility’s final zoning approval. Ultimately, the measure passed, paving the way for the plant.
“I honestly don’t know what was more disgusting, disappointing, depressing: the outcome of the vote or the dog-and pony show they put on and blatant disregard for the strong voice of this community,” Manning later remarked to Grist.
Jonesborough residents remain active in a Facebook group created to organize opposition to BWXT, keeping an eye on any news about the nuclear industry’s activities in Tennessee. Some participants are closely monitoring local elections, pledging to vote out officials who supported the zoning change.
Regarding the DOE’s nuclear lifecycle innovation campus, most of it would likely be situated in Oak Ridge, though waste disposal might occur elsewhere, with the location yet to be determined. Federal officials familiar with the process mentioned that the selection process will involve extensive discussions with the potential communities, although the details of these conversations were not specified. They also noted that any waste storage decisions would be preceded by years of environmental analysis to eliminate locations with critical flaws such as streams, aquifers, or geological instability. The initial Tennessee project application sought letters of support from neighboring counties’ officials and suggested that campus funding could help with local infrastructural improvements.
Sunny Miller acknowledges the need for jobs in East Tennessee that a nuclear revival could bring. Many residents face economic challenges, he said, and employers would offer competitive salaries. However, he is troubled by the need to balance these benefits against risks he feels are not fully understood.
“You can’t live on car washes and chicken places alone, that’s a real feeling,” Miller said. “But let me make this decision based on facts.”
This piece has been updated to clarify the role and origin of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 Security Complex.
