Amentum, a Fortune 500 company with business lines ranging from spacecraft to environmental cleanup to immigrant detention, cut the ribbon Oct. 8 on a new global nuclear headquarters in Oak Ridge.
The Virginia-based company employs 2,200 workers in East Tennessee as of 2026 and partners with Jacobs and Honeywell to operate the area’s leading environmental cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy, United Cleanup Oak Ridge.
Amentum’s nuclear projects include supporting a plan to keep a South African reactor operating in the years ahead and decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, where three reactors melted down in 2011.
Oak Ridge’s support for nuclear energy and technology, along with the rise of private nuclear ventures
in the area, helped Amentum decide where to put its new nuclear center, said Mark Whitney, president of the company's energy and environment business.
Amentum employs about 50,000 people across the world and is excited about the possibilities Oak Ridge can provide, CEO John Heller told Knox News.
“We have business lines that are going to be growing or contracting based on different economic trends,” he said, referencing Amentum layoffs in Florida. “The nuclear industry right now − because of AI, the increasing demand for electricity − this is an area where we're very confident to invest and support the growth through significant investment and hiring, prior to necessarily having the work.”
Heller said Amentum's leadership saw a unique opportunity in Oak Ridge because of the federal government's willingness to open nearby land to private industry, the company's longstanding reputation in the region and the potential to build a nuclear workforce.
To foster that workforce, the company also announced Oct. 8 the Amentum Nuclear Scholars Program, a new scholarship pipeline linking Roane State Community College and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
“We felt we had a great opportunity to build a workforce here, in a place people want to live,” Heller said.
Mariah Franklin reports on technology and energy for Knox News. Email: mariah.franklin@knoxnews.com. Signal: mariahfranklin.01
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Fortune 500 company has a new global nuclear headquarters in Oak Ridge
