Arthur McMiler 
- The project will more than double BWXT’s Washington County workforce, with support from a state economic development grant
- The plant will be the federal government’s only active site for high-purity depleted uranium production
- The Jonesborough project is BWXT’s third Nuclear Energy Fund-backed facilities in Tennessee, after Oak Ridge and Erwin
BWX Technologies will invest $714.5 million and hire 181 workers at its Jonesborough, Tennessee, site to scale up production of high-purity depleted uranium, or HPDU, for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
According to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, or TNECD, Gov. Bill Lee, Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter and company officials disclosed the signing of the project’s agreement Friday. McWhorter also serves as commissioner of the TNECD, which is backing the project with an economic development grant. Jobs created in the expanded facility will more than double BWXT’s workforce in Washington County, the TNECD said.
What Will BWXT’s Jonesborough Investment Support?
The expansion supports a 10-year, $1.6 billion NNSA contract that BWXT secured in September 2025 to design, license, build and operate an HPDU plant at the Jonesborough property. Under that award, the company expects to produce as much as 300 metric tons of the material annually by turning uranium oxide into metal suitable for use.
Once the plant is operating, Jonesborough will be the federal government’s only active site for the HPDU process, according to the TNECD.
“This grant will help create benefits for the community that will last decades,” said Jeff Messaros, general manager of BWXT Ordnance Tennessee.
How Did BWXT Gain the Jonesborough Facility?
The project follows BWXT’s 2025 purchase of Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee from L3Harris Technologies in a $100 million transaction. When the deal was announced, L3Harris identified the business as the U.S. government’s sole uranium supplier. The unit also manufactures components from metals such as titanium, tantalum and copper for defense, aerospace and commercial customers.
How Does Tennessee’s Nuclear Energy Fund Support BWXT?
The Jonesborough agreement is the 12th project, and BWXT’s third, to tap Tennessee’s Nuclear Energy Fund. Fund-supported projects have drawn pledges of close to 4,000 jobs and upward of $10 billion in capital spending, the TNECD said.
Lee proposed the fund at $50 million in his 2023-2024 budget, and legislators approved another $45 million across sessions held from 2024 through 2026, lifting the fund to $95 million.
“When we created Tennessee’s Nuclear Energy Fund, our goal was to cultivate an ecosystem where this industry could thrive,” Lee said.
BWXT’s two earlier fund-backed projects were announced in 2025. The first committed 60 jobs and $45 million to a new Oak Ridge location, where the company opened a centrifuge manufacturing development facility in January to advance domestic uranium enrichment. The second pledged 198 jobs and $122 million to expand its existing operations in Erwin.
What Other National Security Work Is BWXT Pursuing?
In May, the Lynchburg, Virginia-based company booked more than $1.4 billion in Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program contracts. The awards include $1.285 billion for long-lead materials and roughly $165 million for reactor components supporting Ford-class aircraft carriers.
In October, BWXT’s advanced fuels subsidiary signed a multiyear deal to produce tri-structural isotropic, or TRISO, fuel for Antares Nuclear. Production will use the same Lynchburg line that delivered a full fuel core for the Department of War’s Project Pele transportable microreactor.
The company has also expanded beyond Tennessee. It launched an Innovation Campus for advanced nuclear technology at its Lynchburg headquarters in 2025 and opened a digital center in Melbourne, Florida, in February to focus on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and automation.
BWXT employs more than 11,000 people and operates 19 manufacturing facilities worldwide.
