OAK RIDGE, Tennessee — Nestled amid the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, this sprawling town of 33,000 was built from scratch to be the Manhattan Project’s headquarters.
Now it’s primed to host the country’s nuclear power renaissance.
“There’s a critical mass here,” said Alan Lowe, executive director of the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.
The town, which feels like one giant modern business park, is a magnet for cutting-edge nuclear projects from tech giants fueling the AI boom. Amazon-backed X-energy is setting up what it says will be the nation’s first commercial facility for advanced nuclear fuel in the town, while Google partner Kairos Power is constructing what could be the first operational non-water-cooled reactor in the U.S.
In all, 154 nuclear companies call the area home, turning a birthplace of the Atomic Age into the incubation chamber for America’s potential nuclear revival. Energy Secretary Chris Wright will visit the town on Friday to tour the Y-12 National Security Complex, which produces and stores weapons-grade uranium.
“You have the history,” Lowe said. “You have the organizations, like [the East Tennessee Economic Council], that are so supportive of that industry. You have a state government and local government and support from the federal government making it happen. You have companies coming in and realizing this is a good place, and then that brings in other companies.”
It’s unclear how the Trump administration’s policies, including attempts to claw back funding from the Democrats’ 2022 climate law, could affect the nuclear industry’s prospects. But Wright is an outspoken proponent of nuclear power — once serving on the board of nuclear startup Oklo — and proponents say Oak Ridge is an ideal launching pad for the industry, given its role in enriching the uranium used to create the first atomic bomb.
“That established this culture that is now three to four generations deep,” said Wade Creswell, county executive of Roane County, where part of Oak Ridge is located. “I don’t know how you could get more nuclear-friendly.”
Danny Brewer, born and raised in Oak Ridge, worked at the Manhattan Project’s K-25 uranium enrichment site for most of his life. Now retired, he drives across the town’s forested ridges and built-up hollows to get his weekly milkshake at the Jefferson Soda Fountain, which serves the “K-25 Atomic Sampler” and “Y-12 Breakfast Bomb”.
“It’s what we live,” Brewer said of his hometown’s breadwinning industry. “That’s how we made our living. It was our job.”
‘More like a pep rally’
In 1942, the land that now comprises Oak Ridge was an unincorporated rural community with around 3,000 residents. That year, it was selected as one of three main sites for the Manhattan Project, and its population ballooned to 75,000 in 1945.
Oak Ridge was Tennessee’s fifth-largest city, but it wasn’t on any map.
The “Secret City” enriched uranium and produced plutonium for the world’s first atomic weapons. The city’s task was even kept from its residents, including the women separating uranium isotopes.
“These were high school graduates in the area that tested well in math and science. They didn’t know what those dials did. They just knew to keep them within a certain parameter,” said Matt Mullins, director of marketing and communications at the American Museum of Science and Energy.
After the war, the government decided to keep the Oak Ridge National Laboratory running under the Department of Energy, broadening its research beyond nuclear science. Today, it’s the country’s largest multi-program science and technology laboratory.
When the K-25 enrichment site closed in the 1980s, Brewer and many of his buddies found new work supporting the national lab’s research. Other co-workers worked on the 40-year environmental cleanup of K-25 or found employment at the Y-12 complex.
The work has continued through the family trees of residents. Centrus Energy, the only U.S.-based uranium enricher, relies on locals to run the country’s only factory for centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
“A number of our employees are the second and third generation in their family to have worked in America’s uranium enrichment enterprise, some of them going all the way to the Manhattan Project,” said Dan Leistikow, vice president of corporate communications at Centrus.
Lowe attributes Oak Ridge’s nuclear prowess to a unique combination of factors.
The federally-owned TVA utility provides electricity that’s cheaper than 75 percent of the country and has only once introduced rolling blackouts in its 92-year history. The Oak Ridge National Lab is one of the world’s premier research centers for nuclear science, materials science, energy, high-performance computing, and many other fields.
And Oak Ridgers, he said, like nuclear technology. Tracy Boatner, president and CEO of the East Tennessee Economic Council, agreed.
“I don’t think you can overstate the friendly part,” she said. “A lot of areas are not welcoming to nuclear. They just don’t know about it, and so there’s a fear there.”
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), whose district includes Oak Ridge, is also a staunch supporter of nuclear energy.
“The demand is there. The need is there,” he said. “But let me be more blunt: Our adversaries, the Chinese and Russians, are building these and deploying these. Our friends, the South Koreans and the French, are in this market as well. If we do not get into this market and compete in this market, we will be out of this market within a decade and then fully dependent on foreign designs and other forms of energy.”
The challenges of safely managing long-lived radioactive waste and the potential for catastrophic accidents fuels strong objections from environmental groups. The industry’s critics have also pointed out that building nuclear plants is expensive and time-consuming, when wind and solar power can be deployed relatively quickly.
Creswell, the Roane County executive, said the “tri-party partnership” of nuclear science, defense and environmental cleanup familiarized locals with the technology and brought economic prosperity. That, he said, “keeps working together and makes us the most nuclear-friendly community in the United States.”
When the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hosted a local meeting for California-based Kairos Power to demonstrate its Generation IV nuclear reactor in Oak Ridge, that enthusiasm was on display, Boatner said.
Generation IV reactors use a medium other than water as a coolant, and no such power plants exist in North America.
“Not one single negative comment or person in the room,” Boatner said. “I went up to the person who was there from the NRC after one of the last ones, and I said, ‘Is this how these normally go?’ He said, ‘No. This is more like a pep rally.’”
Kairos noticed.
Edward Blandford, co-founder and chief technology officer of Kairos Power, said the company chose to demonstrate their Hermes small modular reactor in Oak Ridge “to leverage a community that wants the technology.”
He added that Oak Ridge National Laboratory was where molten salt-cooled reactors, like Hermes, were first tested in the 1960s.
“From an alignment with technology, economic development, and relationships with key stakeholders from the Oak Ridge National Lab to the Tennessee Valley Authority, it was always a natural fit,” Blandford said.
Billions in investment
The French company Orano also cited the “strong community and state support” in its selection of Oak Ridge for the site of a new uranium enrichment facility. The over $5 billion project is expected to be the largest investment in Tennessee history.
Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch highlighted the collaborative efforts that landed the project.
“The governor called in March. And you had the governor, lieutenant governor, [state] Sen. [Ken] Yager, the hierarchy from [the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development], state representatives and other folks. They were all together, in person or on a conference call talking about this project, what we were going to do to pursue it, and what incentives we would be willing to make,” Gooch recalled.
Fleischmann also helped appropriate funding and support for the Orano project, Gooch said. In the end, Congress set aside $2.8 billion in federal funds to bolster domestic uranium production, much of which will go to Orano.
“As a result of that, Orano made a decision,” Gooch said.
While Congress, the Biden administration and Tennessee’s nuclear development fund offered financial incentives, local officials searched for a good site.
They found their ideal parcel of land, but Creswell said some local groups initially were apprehensive.
Recalling the episode, the county executive leaned forward in his office chair with a smile.
“There are two or three passionate groups — environmentalists — and they’re mainly retirees from the DOE site,” Creswell said. “They found out it was going to be transferred for industrial use, and they were up in arms about it: ‘How dare you?’”
But when it was announced that the site would be used for Orano’s uranium enrichment facility, Creswell said, “nothing but approval.”
Oak Ridgers for Responsible Development, one of the groups Cresswell referred to, said it’s all in for Orano. The nonprofit’s mission includes evaluating whether development will both create jobs and “protect our natural assets.”
“I think the addition of Orano to Oak Ridge will be very positive,” said Don Barkman of ORRD. “It will bring high-paying jobs and increased property tax revenue.”
The Orano project also paused a development that the nonprofit opposes: a new airport.
The airport’s proximity to the enrichment site would complicate Orano’s NRC approval. The city had a choice: stop the airport or risk losing Orano. They paused the airport project.
To Creswell, becoming the atomic Silicon Valley requires a commitment to nuclear today, nuclear tomorrow, and nuclear above all — even if it sacrifices opportunities from other industries. He notes that while neighboring Anderson County has diversified into automotive parts manufacturing, Roane hasn’t.
“You’ve got to stay focused and committed to nuclear as your identity,” Creswell said. “Other manufacturing sectors or other business sectors see the activity happening here and they want to be here. The commitment to say ‘no’ to some otherwise attractive projects is what will be required for us to truly make this the nuclear hub of our country.”
“It’s going to be tough. It hasn’t been yet because we haven’t had to do it, but we know it’s coming.”
