Jonesborough, Tennessee, Has a Uranium Problem
A promise of jobs and economic development is not enough to convince people of rural Jonesborough, Tennessee, that a depleted uranium facility is worth the potential risks. They want more safety checks.
by Marina WatersJune 25, 2026
An aerial view of the BWX Technologies plant in Erwin, Tennessee. (Photo from BWXT)
The moment Susanne Fort saw Little Limestone Creek, which makes its way through her property and much of rural Jonesborough, Tennessee, she knew she had found her home. That was in 2010. Now, when she gazes upon the creek’s clear, ever-moving stream, she’s unsure of its future and her own.
“It took me seven years of searching to find this house,” Fort said. “We knew it was a fixer-upper. It’s pre-Civil War, so we were expecting that. Then we walked down and looked at the property — the creek — and we were just sold. It is incredibly beautiful.”
Fort lives about a mile downstream from BWX Technologies, Inc., a nuclear technology, manufacturing, and services company that acquired its Jonesborough site in 2025. BWXT looks to build a new, high-purity depleted uranium (HPDU) manufacturing facility adjacent to its current site. The new facility will help fulfill the company’s 10-year contract valued at $1.6 billion to provide the federal government with HPDU used for national defense technology. According to the company’s website, the company is the federal government’s only U.S. supplier of HPDU. Under the contract, BWXT will create up to 300 metric tons of the material annually.
It’s also created concern in residents.
The Land
Jonesborough is Tennessee’s oldest town, known for its annual National Storytelling Festival in its charming historic downtown. It’s surrounded by views of a green Buffalo Mountain and Cherokee National Forest in the heart of what’s historically been an agriculturally rich area.
“They say it’s like a hallmark town,” Fort said. “This whole area is kind of like a hallmark area. The history, the houses, the people who’ve been here a long time — it’s just breathtaking. It’s just a really nice place, up to this point.”
Jonesborough meets rural Telford, Tennessee, on Old State Route 34, which is home to rolling pasture land, Little Limestone Creek, and numerous farms and homes spread throughout the East Tennessee hills — along with David Crockett High School, all situated on the rural two-lane road.
“I don’t love the idea of hazardous material transport by this high school, by these farms, with these roundabouts,” said Anna Wright, who lives near the newly rezoned property. “I live a mile from there. If there is an accident with hazardous material transport, that affects a lot of people.”
“There are going to be semis going in and out all the time,” Fort said. “This road can’t handle that. I drive a truck. It’s barely wide enough for a normal truck.”
BWXT expects about one hazardous material truck trip per day with reagents and oxide feedstock coming in and HPDU metal and solidified waste going out, according to the company’s website dedicated to the Jonesborough facility. The company also states it expects about four hazardous-material shipments and non-hazardous deliveries per operating day when the site is fully operational.
To prepare for the shipments, the company looks for a road-widening project to commence via the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT).
“TDOT is beginning development of a State Industrial Access (SIA) roadway improvement project along Old State Route 34 (SR 353) to help serve the needs of BWXT,” Mark Nagi, the regional communications officer for TDOT in East Tennessee, said in an email.
“The project is very preliminary at this point as we are coordinating with BWXT about their long-range plans for the site, and how they plan to connect to SR 353. This information will help inform the design of the roadway project. At this time, we do not have a schedule or budget developed for the roadway improvements.”
On March 23, 2026, the Washington County Commission approved BWXT’s rezoning request to change its 56-acre property on Old State Route 34 from an agricultural/agricultural business and residential zoning to one suited for high-impact industry.
Hundreds of residents in neon shirts filled the meeting space and two overflow rooms during the commission’s March 23 meeting. A line of residents ready to address the commission in opposition of the rezoning snaked through the room and into the hallway. The community gathered a petition with over 10,000 signatures in opposition. Still the Washington County Commission voted 10-5 to approve the rezoning.
“There’s a risk in life,” Washington County Commissioner Kenneth Huffine said at the March 23 meeting. “I think every time we get in our automobiles we accept more risk every day. What is the risk of doing something? What’s the risk of not doing something?”
The Water and Air
Fort is one of the many residents who has a small family farm in the surrounding area. She worries her animals and those nearby could be at risk.
“Our animals are grazing here,” Fort said. “This impacts our hayfields, our wildlife. We have a lot of hunters. Some families depend on that for a food source. How are you going to support your farmer if the cattle has been drinking from this creek that now has uranium dust in it?”
Fort and other community members are also concerned for local waterways.
“It’s a site that has a flood plain and a very important water source within it,” Anna Wright said. “It requires more vigilance to make sure we have clean drinking water, soil and air…Even in the absence of an accident, it’s still so close to our water table. It’s so close to homes and farms.”
John Dobken, BWXT’s senior manager of media and public relations, told the Daily Yonder the project will not impact Little Limestone Creek. Plans include bridges that would go over the waterway.
According to the company, the HPDU process includes “redundant barriers and safeguards” to prevent contamination of ground and surface water.
“These protections are based on source elimination, engineered containment and system segregation, rather than reliance on monitoring or cleanup after the fact,” stated one of the company’s online responses to community questions.
The property also includes a floodplain, which, residents, such as Gabriel Wilson, who spoke at the March 23 meeting, cite as a concern. In 2024, flooding from Hurricane Helene ravaged southern Washington County, washing away homes, farms, roads, and bridges — all just six miles from BWXT’s Old State Route property.
“You’re voting to put it inches from the floodplain after Helene,” Wilson said, “where our whole community has been traumatized.”
According to the company, the project will keep all facilities outside of the mapped flood zones. Dobken said plans also include a retaining wall above the flood zone to prevent flooding to the site.
“We are putting in retaining walls that will actually enhance the floodplain,” Dobken said, “and make it even more difficult for any flooding to occur. (Increased flooding) would be an extremely remote situation.”
As for emissions from the site, documents show the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation deemed BWXT’s future facility process an “insignificant activity or insignificant emissions unit.” The documents state the facility would release less than five tons of each contaminant and each regulated air pollutant “that is not a hazardous air pollutant,” and less than 1,000 pounds per year of each hazardous air pollutant.
Dobken said the company will release a much smaller amount of emissions.
“Even if all of the things we put in place failed, we would still only be putting out 250 pounds a year, which would be much less than the hazardous threshold,” Dobken said. “We’re not putting out anywhere near 250 pounds of uranium particulates. It’s going to be in the order of grams. I think a lot of people saw that number and thought that was what was going out.”
Luke Carter is a longtime resident who lives about seven miles from the newly rezoned site. For Carter, his concern remains in the overall increased risk.
“Things happen. There is a risk. They admit there is a risk,” Carter said. “You increase operations, you increase risks. We don’t want to increase risks. And we don’t want to put it closer to Little Limestone Creek, closer to the groundwater, closer to the watershed. It’s not good.”
Wright hopes to see real-time information related to any hazards the community should be aware of.
“I would feel a lot better, and I would love for BWXT to consider independent, third-party, in-real-time analysis opportunities for the community to have access to,” Wright said. “The people who live here deserve to find out in real time what’s happening with their water, air, and soil. They don’t deserve to find out five years or 10 years later when people get sick.”
The Effects
Along with material for national defense, BWXT plans to bring jobs and economic support to Jonesborough.
The company is slated to add $176 million annually to Washington County’s gross domestic product, according to Alicia Summers, the county’s economic development council executive director. Summers said BWXT’s expansion includes 181 new jobs with an average wage of $55 an hour. The projected capital investment from the company is over $714 million in investments over a five-year period.
“It’s a generational opportunity for us at a time of a very uncertain economy,” Huffine said before voting in favor of the rezoning. “That’s a factor for us to consider.” Fort and other residents, however, believe it will have a negative impact on the area.“They’re saying it’s all about income it’s going to bring in,” Fort said. “I disagree. I think that’s going to kill this area once the word gets out and people find out what they’ve got down the road.”
Concern for the future also brought the community together for a cause that continues. What started as a “Neighbors of BWXT” Facebook group has morphed into the non-profit, the East Tennessee Community Coalition. The group has retained Attorney Matt Grossman of Knoxville and aims to raise money for a legal fund while also spreading community awareness.
“It’s been about community interest,” Carter said. “It’s been about people over politics and representing the interest of local people and local control instead of state and federal. It’s not about Republicans and Democrats.”
Little Limestone Creek stretches about six miles from BWXT until it meets the Nolichucky River, the nearby body of water that saw massive flooding from Hurricane Helene. Fort believes it’s also important for those downstream from the site to be aware of the new facility.
“We’ve been educating and reaching out,” Fort said. “It’s a lot of people to try to reach. That’s our goal, to just educate everybody in East Tennessee.”
Members are also busy testing the soil and the water — an action the community looks to make a regular occurrence.
“We have an opportunity to do our own independent testing,” Wright said. “If that’s not something they’re willing to do, I think as a service to the community, we need to make sure we’re doing it.”
For some, the information gathered will dictate if they leave or stay in the region.
“I can’t in good conscience live here unless I have clear answers,” Wright said. “At the end of the day, I’m not going to live in an unsafe place. I’m not going to raise my kids where I can’t trust the air a mile away. That’s too much for me to bear.”
“It’s one thing to move because you decided to, your job took you somewhere else or there’s another community you feel would be a great fit for your family. It’s another thing to have to execute your plan b, feeling like you’re being evicted from your own home, your farm and your dream.”
Fort is also contemplating her future.
“This will determine if we stay here or not,” Fort said. “It’s something my husband and I have been thinking about. We absolutely do not want to move. We love it here, but I don’t know. They are playing with a lot of people’s lives. It’s not fair. If our kids were small still, we’d already be gone.”
They also say the fight isn’t over.
“We are going to go down having done everything we possibly could if we’re going to go down,” Wright said. “I think the community isn’t going to be quiet.”
Marina Waters is a journalist from East Tennessee with an affinity for stories throughout Southern Appalachia. She has covered everything from breaking national news to deep dives on bitcoin mining in rural Tennessee. Her work has appeared in various publications, including the New York Times.
