BWXT Jonesborough to Add 181 Jobs in $714.5M Uranium Metal Expansion

A BWXT Jonesborough expansion will create 181 new jobs and bring a $714.5 million investment in Washington County, Tennessee, to produce high-purity depleted uranium (HPDU) metal for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, state officials announced Nov. 6. In its announcement, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development said BWXT would more than double its current local workforce with the new hiring.

The project is supported by an economic development grant from TNECD’s Nuclear Energy Fund. TNECD’s Nov. 6 release does not state the grant amount. WJHL, citing a TNECD spokesperson, reported the same day that the exact amount “will be posted to the fund’s transparency site within 30 days of the announcement.”

What the BWXT Jonesborough Expansion Includes

TNECD said BWXT will invest $714.5 million at the Jonesborough site and create 181 new jobs to produce HPDU metal for NNSA. The department described the hiring as more than doubling BWXT’s current local workforce. It did not publish a current headcount, a wage range, a street address or a date when production is scheduled to start, and this article does not invent those figures.

The same announcement, and BWXT’s Sept. 30, 2025, contract release, both say that once the plant is completed, BWXT’s Jonesborough facility “will be the only active site capable of performing this critical process for the government.” That is a claim about the finished plant, not a statement that the new production line is already running at the planned scale.

WJHL, in its Nov. 6 report on the state agreement, wrote that “construction has begun on the 325,000-square-foot facility.” That size and construction status do not appear in the TNECD release or in BWXT’s Sept. 30, 2025, contract announcement. Manufacturers Lists treats both details as WJHL’s reporting.

The NNSA Contract Behind the Plant

The Nov. 6 state announcement sits on a federal contract awarded the previous year. On Sept. 30, 2025, BWXT said it had been awarded a 10-year contract valued at $1.6 billion by NNSA “to support the national security mission of establishing a supply of high purity depleted uranium (HPDU).” Under that contract, BWXT said it would design the plant, apply for licenses, buy long-lead equipment, prepare the site, demonstrate manufacturing readiness and operate the plant at its Jonesborough site, producing up to 300 metric tons of HPDU a year.

TNECD’s Nov. 6 release repeats the same 10-year, $1.6 billion contract description and dates it to September 2025. NNSA’s award notice that same Sept. 30 confirms a competitive award to BWXT Ordnance Tennessee, a BWX Technologies subsidiary, for the licensing, design and operation of an HPDU production capability at the Jonesborough site. The NNSA page does not itself state the contract’s dollar value. This article keeps the $1.6 billion figure attributed to BWXT and TNECD.

The job counts from those two moments should be kept separate. BWXT’s Sept. 30, 2025, release said that once fully operational, the new facility was “expected to create approximately 175 highly skilled jobs.” TNECD’s Nov. 6, 2026, announcement puts the expansion at 181 new jobs. Manufacturers Lists is not treating those as the same official total, and it is not reconciling the difference.

BWXT President and CEO Rex D. Geveden, in the 2025 contract announcement, said the company had “acquired the Jonesborough site earlier this year” and that the HPDU plant “enables the U.S. capability to produce this vital material for national security.” NNSA said the new capability will supply the Y-12 National Security Complex with depleted uranium for production use. Dave Hoagland, then acting deputy administrator for defense programs, said the award “enables NNSA to supply new unalloyed depleted uranium to Y-12 for its essential mission to produce depleted uranium and binary components necessary to maintain the Nation’s deterrent.” NNSA also said HPDU is needed to support its Life Extension Programs and joint test assemblies, and that the work will use DOE-owned depleted uranium oxides converted at the department’s Portsmouth site.

BWXT describes the manufacturing step as converting uranium oxide into usable metal, a process it says has been done before at Jonesborough and at other U.S. sites. On its Jonesborough site page, the company also says HPDU “is utilized as tank armor to protect U.S. military personnel and for munitions,” and that the Jonesborough operation will not enrich uranium, produce nuclear fuel or manufacture energetics or explosives. Those are the company’s statements about the work.

Earlier Tennessee Projects and the Nuclear Energy Fund

TNECD said the Nov. 6 agreement is BWXT’s third Tennessee project to use the state’s Nuclear Energy Fund, and the 12th project overall from that fund. The fund, the department said, has resulted in nearly 4,000 new jobs and more than $10 billion in capital investment. The first two BWXT projects were announced in 2025: 60 new jobs and $45 million at a new location in Oak Ridge, and 198 new jobs and $122 million through an expansion in Erwin.

The fund itself started at $50 million in Gov. Bill Lee’s recommended 2023-2024 budget and was approved by the Tennessee General Assembly, TNECD said. An additional $45 million was allocated and approved in the state budget during the 2024, 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, bringing the total to $95 million since inception. The Jonesborough grant amount is not in that recap and is not filled in here.

In TNECD’s announcement, Deputy Gov. and TNECD Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter said, “Securing our nation’s energy independence is one of our top priorities in Tennessee, and BWXT has been an outstanding partner in advancing that mission.” He pointed to the same fund-wide totals of nearly 4,000 pledged jobs and more than $10 billion in investment. The department’s “About BWXT” section, which is company-supplied text, describes BWXT as a U.S.-based manufacturer with more than 11,000 employees and 19 manufacturing facilities globally.

Putting HPDU metal production on an existing Tennessee site keeps a national-security material in a domestic plant, which is the point both the state announcement and BWXT’s 2025 contract release emphasize. The official figures still have to be read as plans: 181 jobs and $714.5 million are what TNECD announced on Nov. 6, and the earlier contract value and capacity figures are what BWXT published when NNSA made the award.

What to Watch Next

• The grant. TNECD confirmed state support from the Nuclear Energy Fund. The dollar amount was not in the Nov. 6 release. WJHL, citing a TNECD spokesperson, said it is to be posted to the fund’s transparency site within 30 days of the announcement.
• Jobs. The official Nov. 6 figure is 181 new jobs, more than doubling the local workforce. BWXT’s September 2025 contract announcement had used “approximately 175” once the plant was fully operational. Hiring dates, wages and filled-to-date counts were not in the sources reviewed for this article.
• The plant. WJHL reported that construction has begun on a 325,000-square-foot facility. A production start date for the $714.5 million expansion was not in the TNECD announcement.
• Capacity. BWXT’s 2025 contract announcement said the plant would produce up to 300 metric tons of HPDU a year. That is a company capacity figure, not a published production schedule.
• The contract. The $1.6 billion, 10-year value appears in BWXT’s and TNECD’s accounts of the Sept. 30, 2025, award. NNSA’s award notice confirms the Jonesborough HPDU work but does not print that dollar figure.

For other recent U.S. defense-plant coverage on this site, see JVIS Defense & Aerospace in Auburn Hills. For another large domestic metals investment, see U.S. Steel’s Osceola DRI plant. More metal producers are listed in the Manufacturers Lists steel manufacturers list.