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East Tennessee leads in U.S. effort to revive Cold War uranium capabilities

Knoxville News Sentinel
Summary
Nutrition label

84% Informative

The U.S. government is looking at possible locations for uranium enrichment plants for national defense.

The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration is partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop and test a new centrifuge technology that could enrich "unobligated" uranium.

Low-enriched uranium is composed of around 5% uranium-235, the fissile isotope that splits to power nuclear reactors.

The National Nuclear Security Administration does not enrich bomb-grade uranium to be used in weapons.

The U.S. cannot purchase enriched uranium for defense purposes from a foreign company.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory declined to comment on the Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment .

The project is separate from the Department of Energy's multibillion-dollar effort to spur domestic commercial uranium enrichment to fuel nuclear power plants.

VR Score

85

Informative language

84

Neutral language

46

Article tone

formal

Language

English

Language complexity

71

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

External references

19

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/10/east-tennessee-leads-in-effort-to-revive-cold-war-uranium-enrichment/76949965007/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/environment/2024/12/26/2024-was-huge-for-east-tennessee-nuclear-industry-in-oak-ridge-beyond/76336168007/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2024/04/04/y-12-nuclear-complex-in-oak-ridge-has-new-federal-oversight/73176551007/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/business/2024/11/12/usa-based-uranium-enrinchment-company-centrus-competes-for-nuclear-funds/75901114007/https://www.ucsusa.org/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2024/01/18/chuck-fleischmann-poised-to-pull-plug-on-ornl-nuclear-nonproliferation-research/72082788007/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/11/22/putin-russia-ukraine-war-nuclear/76493047007/https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-enterprise-blueprinthttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/01/16/jill-hruby-nuclear-weapons-arms-race/77749100007/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/business/2024/12/02/city-of-oak-ridge-works-to-build-downtown-housing-amid-nuclear-surge/76097251007/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2024/03/12/does-y-12-in-oak-ridge-make-nuclear-weapons-know-your-knox/72082813007/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/environment/2024/09/30/tennessee-radioactive-nuclear-fuel-plant-safe-amid-helene-floods/75444884007/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2022/03/04/tva-sole-producer-tritium-essential-element-us-nuclear-weapons/6562273001/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2024/12/12/energy-department-selects-oak-ridge-firms-for-3-4b-uranium-contracts/76860939007/https://fas.org/initiative/status-world-nuclear-forces/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/environment/2025/01/02/ucor-oak-ridge-nuclear-cleanup-expands-with-ornl-y12-demolitions/76949910007/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2024/01/03/how-tva-watts-bar-in-east-tennessee-prepares-for-nuclear-emergency/71670240007/https://subscribe.knoxnews.com/offershttps://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2024/11/21/centrus-investing-60m-to-resume-centrifuge-production-in-oak-ridge/76338108007/

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