BWXT announces expansion at Jonesborough facility

BWXT will create 181 jobs and invest $714.5 million to expand its Jonesborough facility, where it will produce high-purity depleted uranium metal for the federal government, state officials announced Friday. Gov. Bill Lee, Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter, who also serves as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, and BWXT officials announced the signing of an agreement supporting the Washington County expansion. The project is backed by an economic development grant from the department. The expansion will more than double BWXT's local workforce. The metal will be produced for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. In September 2025, the NNSA awarded BWXT a 10-year, $1.6 billion contract to build a high-purity depleted uranium manufacturing plant at its Jonesborough site. Once completed, the facility will be the only active site capable of performing the process for the government. The announcement marks BWXT's third project and the 12th overall to use money from the state's Nuclear Energy Fund. Projects backed by the fund have produced nearly 4,000 new jobs and more than $10 billion in capital investment, according to the state. BWXT's first two projects, both announced in 2025, included 60 new jobs and a $45 million investment at a new location in Oak Ridge, and 198 new jobs and a $122 million investment to expand its existing operation in Erwin. The $50 million fund was included in Lee's recommended 2023-24 budget and approved by the Tennessee General Assembly. Lawmakers approved an additional $45 million during the 2024, 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, bringing the fund's total to $95 million.