In 1942, the US Army Corps of Engineers bought an estimated 60,000 acres (24,000 ha) of rural farmland to construct a temporary city and three facilities for the Manhattan Project.
Some 60% of the $2bn Manhattan Project funding came to Oak Ridge, which became a city of more than 75,000 people and had over 80,000 workers. In addition to defence missions, the plant also produced enriched uranium for the commercial nuclear power industry. In 1987, US Department of Energy (DOE) terminated uranium enrichment operations in Oak Ridge and closed the site permanently. It is now under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.
In 1989, the DOE formed the Office of Environmental Management (EM) to begin cleanup at the site. In the years since then, the site has been transformed from a government-owned former enrichment complex into a privately-owned, multi-use industrial park.
The region includes what is now the 2200 acre (888 ha) East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP).
This area was home to a complex of facilities that enriched uranium during the industry’s previous phase. At its birth, the technology park had contaminated buildings, soil, sediment, and groundwater that required remediation. In 2020, EM celebrated ‘core cleanup’ at the site, after it had demolished more than 500 structures, including five uranium enrichment buildings, and addressed major areas of soil contamination.
The next step was soil and groundwater remediation, which kicked off in May 2023. Soil remediation was completed within the area in 2024 (after removal of 554,000 cubic yards (421,000 m3) of soil – five times the initial estimate of 100,000 (76,000 m3) cubic yards) and in the surrounding area (known as Zone 1) in 2025.
In 2024, regulatory approval and guidance was granted for the final phase of cleanup, to address groundwater.
ETTP is divided into three sections for groundwater remediation planning. In the Main Plant Area, which encompasses most of the operations area at the former enrichment complex, it will use enhanced in-situ bioremediation, which involves injecting microorganisms and a carbon source, such as vegetable oil, into the ground. The microorganisms reduce or detoxify the contaminants.
The area where the large K-31 and K-33 uranium enrichment buildings once stood will be subject to ‘monitored natural attenuation’, which relies on natural processes that reduce contaminant concentrations in groundwater.
The third section is called Zone 1, which is the area immediately surrounding the Main Plant and K-31 and K-33 areas. EM and Oak Ridge Environmental Management (OREM) aim to deal with Zone 1 groundwater by 2030 and the remaining ecology, surface water, and sediment by 2032.
More than 1800 acres (727 ha), along with major site infrastructure, have been transferred for economic development and a further 900 acres (363 ha) is set for transfer. Another 3000 acres (1212 ha) have been placed in a conservation easement that is open to the public for recreational use, with 100 (40 ha) acres for historic preservation efforts as part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
Economic development
By June 2024 ETTP could claim more than 20 businesses were operating at the site.
Nuclear projects in Tennessee can benefit from the state’s Nuclear Energy Fund, an initiative that helps nuclear-related businesses establish or expand operations in the state. What was initially a $50m fund was created in 2023 by Governor Bill Lee. The fund was increased by $10m in Fiscal Year 2025 and another $10 million in Fiscal Year 2026. A separate $50m fund will support TVA’s Clinch River SMR project. The fund has the support of the state legislature, which highlighted its effect as an industrial booster. The state said that nuclear companies awarded grants from this fund have committed to investing over $4.7bn and created nearly 700 new jobs in Tennessee (see table 1).
A 2025 report by the Center For Economic Research In Tennessee also highlighted indirect financial support to further boost investment in the region. That includes the Zero Emission Nuclear Power Production Credit, launched in 2022, which offers 0.3 cents per kWh for nuclear electricity sold to others. Nuclear plant owners can also use tax-free Decommissioning Reserve Funds for future cleanup costs. Additionally, uranium miners qualify for the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit, since uranium is considered a critical mineral.
(Source: ANS)
A major focus for investment in the area is the nuclear fuel cycle. In the last three years six companies have set up shop or expanded in ETTP.
March 2022: Ultra-Safe Nuclear Corporation
In 2022 Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) announced it would site its Pilot Fuel Manufacturing (PFM) operation in ETTP. At that time, privately funded USNC had invested more than $12m into the PFM facility. “Proximity to ORNL and Y-12, as well as access to east Tennessee’s highly skilled and motivated nuclear workforce, was a key consideration in our site selection,” said Kurt Terrani, executive vice president of USNC’s Core Division.
The project was on the former site of the Manhattan Project’s K-25 gaseous diffusion plant. USNC purchased the 8.7 acre (3.5 ha) site with a pre-existing industrial building. The company planned to commission and operate the production-scale modules involved in manufacturing TRISO fuel particles and its own ‘fully ceramic micro-encapsulated fuel’.
The PFM was opened in August 2022 as planned, to produce the first fuel for testing and qualification for use in the Micro Modular Reactor (MMR) , a high-temperature gas-cooled plant designed to operate at various power levels from 10 MWt (3.3 MWe) to 45 MWt (15 MWe) fuelled with either high-assay low-enriched uranium or enhanced low enriched uranium (LEU+).
In December 2023, USNC signed an agreement with France’s Framatome to establish a joint venture to provide fuel for the MMR and other advanced reactor designs.
However, in October 2024 USNC filed for bankruptcy protection and announced plans to sell the company, after the death of a key backer, Richard Hollis Helms, who had invested about $100m in the venture and provided another $25m in loans. Kurt Terrani, interim chief executive, said company had been seeking to raise further funds since 2022 but had struggled to secure an “anchor investor”.
UNSC says that, during the sale proceedings, it will maintain full operational continuity across its projects, including fuel production.
USNC also announced that it had entered into an asset purchase agreement with Standard Nuclear Inc for its fuel-related assets and technology development contracts. Standard Nuclear will acquire the assets for $28m if there is no other bidder.
October 2022: TRISO-X
X-Energy broke ground on a new fuel fabrication plant in October 2022. The TX-1 facility will have an estimated output of 5t of uranium, or 700,000 TRISO pebbles, per year. The company said this would be enough fuel for up to 11 Xe-100 reactors.
Initially it was planned to begin commissioning as soon as 2025. That has slipped, but TX-1 was reported this year to say that it would be “the first Category 2 Fuel Fabrication Facility licensed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the United States,” adding that it “continues to engage closely with the NRC to support an efficient and thorough review and anticipates regulatory approval by May 2026.”
June 2024: Kairos Power
Kairos Power announced a $100m investment at ETTP in June 2024 for a new reactor design, rather than fuel production.
Kairos Power wants to deploy 500 MW of capacity of its fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR) by 2035 and June 2024 saw it receive approval for a construction permit for the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor. Less than a year later, in May 2025, Kairos was celebrating pouring of the first nuclear safety-related concrete.
The company already had a non-nuclear Engineering Test Unit (ETU) – its third – under construction at an adjacent area and in July 2025 ETU-3’s reactor vessel was installed.
September 2024: Orano
In September 2024 Orano USA named Oak Ridge as the site of a new uranium enrichment facility, termed Project IKE. The new facility was said to be the single largest investment in Tennessee’s history and will become one of the largest uranium enrichment plants in North America.
Orano provides 12% of global uranium enrichment capacity through its Tricastin fuel enrichment site in France and is expanding that capacity by 30%. The new ETTP site will be similar in size to Tricastin. It will be sized for annual full production capacity of several million SWU. (In 2023, US utility demand was 15 million SWU).
The plant will be designed for both low-enriched uranium and LEU+. Orano says that “With appropriate levels of federal support, a HALEU facility to enrich uranium for fueling certain advanced reactors could be co-located with the LEU facility on the Project IKE site to achieve cost and process efficiencies.”
The new 750,000 square feet (70,000 m2) facility will be located on a 920 acre (383 Ha) site on ‘green field’ DOE land on the Roane County side of Oak Ridge. DOE was in the process of transferring the property to the City of Oak Ridge’s Industrial Development Board (IDB) for potential development when the land was identified as a good prospect for Project IKE. The ownership transfer from DOE to IDB is expected to be completed by early 2026.
Orano USA has begun the licensing process with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC pre-licensing meeting was completed on 10 December 2024. The Project IKE team submitted a Letter of Intent to the NRC on 29 January 2025, with an expected licence application submittal in early 2026. The licensing process can last up to three years, though new NRC efficiencies may shorten that period. Orano says that “With the timely completion of required milestones, facility enrichment operations could begin in the early 2030s”.
April 2025: BWXT Enrichment Operations
In April 2025 BWXT Enrichment Operations, a subsidiary of BWX Technologies, Inc., announced plans to establish a facility to manufacture centrifuge assemblies in Oak Ridge.
BWXT said it plans to invest at least $45m in a new facility and it has acquired 96.53 acres (39 Ha).
That site is part of BWXT’s long-term plans to support fuel production for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) defence programme. BWXT already has two sites in the state: the recently expanded Nuclear Fuel Services in Erwin (where it recently invested $122m) and a newly acquired facility in Jonesborough.
September 2025: Oklo
In September 2025 Oklo Inc announced plans to build a privately funded, commercial nuclear fuel recycling facility at ETTP. The company said it would be the first phase of a $1.68bn advanced fuel centre that would provide fuel for the nuclear energy company’s Aurora design.
Oklo highlighted that the 94,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel stored at power plant sites around the country contain reserves of recyclable fuel equivalent to about 1.3 trillion barrels of oil. It wants the Tennessee facility to begin producing metal fuel for Aurora plants by the early 2030s.
“Fuel is the most important factor in bringing advanced nuclear energy to market,” said Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte. “Tennessee is showing the nation that recycling can be done to support new nuclear development.” The company plans to build on approximately 250 acres of land at ETTP.
