www.ProtectJonesborough.com

UPDATE - 

BWXT wants to expand into doing Hi Purity Depleted-Uranium fuel production in Jonesborough — directly inside our community! 

BWXT is asking Washington County Tennessee & the community of Jonesborough (Tennessee's oldest city) to rezone much of its 128 acre property to “M-2 High Impact Industrial” in order to process 300 metric tons of Uranium each year. This includes 40 acres of their land that is in a flood zone flowing directly into the Nolichucky Watershed. Rezoning land to M2 that borders Agricultural and Residential land is in violatation of Washington County's Comprehensive Plan and is not good governance — especially within just a few hundred feet of homes, farms, wells, and only a mile from Davy Crockett High School.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy and NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration), BWXT has been awarded a 10-year, $1.6 billion federal contract to build and operate a High Purity Depleted Uranium (HPDU) manufacturing plant right here in Washington County.

This isn’t rumor. This is from federal .gov sources.

And here’s the part that every resident needs to understand:

💥 This is not the same operation that Aerojet used to run.

Yes — depleted uranium work has happened on this land in the past. But the new plan is massively different in scale, purpose, and environmental risk.

According to the NNSA, BWXT will be:

 • Converting uranium oxide into high-purity uranium metal

 • Producing up to ~300 metric tons per year of uranium for U.S. defense stockpile needs

 • Constructing and operating a brand-new HPDU facility on this site

This is not just machining DU parts like the old Aerojet plant.

This is uranium chemical conversion and metal manufacturing at industrial scale — in a floodplain, next to homes, farms, wells, and creeks that feed the Nolichucky watershed.

What History Shows When Uranium Processing is Built Near Homes

There is a precedent for uranium processing and nuclear-materials manufacturing being located next to neighborhoods — and every single time it has happened, it has resulted in contamination, cleanup, and long-term harm to the community.

• Fernald, Ohio

A uranium feed materials plant for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Families lived across the street from the facility. Their wells were later found contaminated with uranium and radiological byproducts. The site became a Superfund cleanup costing billions, and today it exists only as the “Fernald Preserve” — a memorial to what went wrong when uranium processing was placed next to homes.

• Homestake Uranium Mill (Grants/Milan, New Mexico)

Residents lived in subdivisions right beside the uranium mill and its waste ponds. Many lived “across the street” from the tailings. Their groundwater became so contaminated it could not be used. Decades later, cleanup is still ongoing under NRC and EPA supervision. The community is still living with the consequences.

• BWXT Site – Lynchburg, Virginia

Even BWXT itself has a contamination legacy. The company’s Lynchburg facility (formerly Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Operations Group) entered federal corrective action for hazardous and radiological contamination. The EPA now prohibits new residential wells and restricts the land from being used for housing because of contamination risk. In other words: the same company proposing uranium processing in Washington County has already left behind a site where residential use is legally restricted.

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The Pattern Is Clear

These facilities weren’t built “miles away in the desert.” They were built next to neighborhoods and farms — within a few hundred feet of where people lived -- just like BXWT wants to do in Jonesborough. The result was the same every time - 

☠️ groundwater & soil contamination

☢️ radiological and heavy metal exposure

🚫 unusable wells/land

💸 decades-long, multimillion-dollar cleanup

🏚️ property value collapse

📜 permanent legacy of regret

Federal and state regulators now cite these sites as warning examples of what should never be repeated.

If Washington County allows uranium processing next to residential and agricultural land, it will be repeating a pattern that has already failed — at immense public cost — everywhere it has ever been tried.

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Why This Matters in Washington County, TN

BWXT is now proposing uranium processing on land next to residential and agricultural property — including areas in a 40-acre floodplain that feeds into the Nolichucky watershed. That is exactly the kind of mistake that turned Fernald, Homestake, and Lynchburg into long-term environmental and public health problems.

No community has ever regretted keeping uranium processing far away from its homes. 
Many have deeply regretted allowing it too close.

We do not need another Fernald. We do not need another Homestake. We do not need another Lynchburg. 

We need leadership who learns from history, not repeats it.

Please sign this petition to demand responsible decision-making in Washington County and our beloved Jonesborough. Let's show that we, the residents of the Tri-Cities, will not stand idly by as our community's future is decided without us—because this is not just about land; it's about our home, our health, and our children's futures. Please sign now to make a lasting impact.