Uranium enrichment began in the U.S. as part of the World War II Manhattan Project to produce nuclear weapons. The first uranium enrichment operations were set up at what is now the Oak Ridge Nat’l. Laboratory (Tennessee) in 1942. In the 1950’s the U.S. government set up two additional plants in Paducah and in Piketon, Ohio. The major technology used at Oak Ridge for the weapons program was gaseous diffusion. The Paducah and Piketon plants also were gaseous diffusion plants. USW and its predecessor unions have represented workers at all three sites from early on.
Pictured: 2023 Atomic Workers Council Meeting
Leading the charge, Jacquie Wright, a radiation control technician at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant, hopes the WOS group can help empower women in an industry traditionally dominated by men and encourage more women to apply for jobs at the plant.
In March, workers at the Idaho National Laboratory wrapped up a project that took nearly two decades to complete. Click to read more about this...
Click to read highlights from the 2023 Health, Safety and Environment Conference.
Approximately 25 members from the USW’s atomic sector spent five days this month sharing information and learning new skills at the union’s Health, Safety and Environment conference.
The Worker Health Protection Program (WHPP) is a program sponsored by the Dept. of Energy to detect and address health problems of DOE workers.
As of November 2012 Local unions at most USW nuclear sites in the United States are active in USW’s Atomic Energy Workers’ Council (AEWC). Several others are not involved currently.
Uranium enrichment began over 70 years ago in the United States and for most of those years the United Steelworkers and its predecessor unions have represented workers at American sites.
