03/24/2026
Hey y’all — from WNC to ETN to SWVA, our mountains are under threat, and this is especially true right now for our neighbors down the mountain in eastern TN. I will be throwing together an essay up on substack about this, this week I hope.
Basically BWXT just successfully lobbied a rural county commission in eastern TN (Jonesborough) to rezone an area with the intent to process high purity depleted uranium for manufacturing specifically for nuclear warheads. If you’ve ever heard of Three Mile Island… yes, that BWXT. It you haven’t heard of TMI, please go read about it.
The company has already admitted their processing will release ~250 pounds of radioactive uranium dust into the air annually and they anticipate processing 300 metric tons of uranium.
Last night, Washington County Commissioners voted to approve the rezoning in Jonesborough — despite the fact that it violates Washington County’s Comprehensive Plan, which expressly calls for compatibility between adjacent land uses, the protection of agricultural and residential areas from industrial encroachment, and the preservation of environmentally sensitive lands and flood plains.
The proposed facility is upriver from the Nolichucky (calling all boaters!!!!), is within 5 miles of 3 schools, and within 50 miles of Asheville… so if there were any accident we would be in an imminent disaster area.
I wrote about the history of Appalachia as a perpetual, state-sanctioned disaster zone in the final issue of .mag — this is just another example of a long, violent history. Appalachians refuse to allow our bodies or mountains to be sacrificed in service of rich men’s wars and imperial violence.
From the holler to the sea, I got you and you got me. Please share and tell everyone you can about this and fight back!
More information and ways to act can be found at protectjonesborough dot com — I’ll add this to my bio.
Also if you know who made these graphics please tag the for me, please and thanks!
