By The Tri-Cities Worker and People’s Defense – Johnson City
The federal government is building a uranium processing plant in Jonesborough for nuclear weapons. You read that correctly. The National Nuclear Security Administration is contracting Babcock and Wilcox Technologies (BWXT), the successor of the corporation responsible for the Third Mile Island incident, the worst nuclear reactor meltdown in U.S. commercial history, to construct a 300-ton high purity depleted uranium plant in the highly-populated area of Jonesborough. It will be built in a floodplain directly connected to the Nolichucky River watershed, which risks contaminating our entire water-supply. In addition, it will contaminate a 50-mile airshed covering the entire Tri-Cities and will cause radioactive material to be shipped on the railroads running throughout our communities.
Johnson City People’s Defense Committee is launching a campaign to establish neighborhood defense units and tenant unions that can mobilize in opposition to BWXT’s nuclear warfare in the Tri-Cities, the U.S.’s warfare abroad, and against all forms of reactionary political and economic terror like ICE raids, gentrification, and unaffordable housing. The people of Tri-Cities must rise up, organize, mobilize, and oppose the ruling class of investors, corporate owners, and government officials who could care less about the impact their profits have on our neighborhoods and communities. Join them at their mass meetings and protests to voice your demands and get organized!
The Washington County Government can restrict BWXT’s development by voting down the re-zoning of a portion of BWXT’s land. But we cannot stop fighting until this entire project is shut down. Tell Washington County Commissioners: “Vote ‘NO’ on BWXT’s M-2 rezoning. Protect our air, water, farms, schools, and families.” Find the call-list, read more, and sign the petition at protectjonesborough.com. Neither The Tri-Cities Worker or PDJC is affiliated with the Protect Jonesborough organization.
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