Holston Army Ammunition Plant, Tennessee

This government-owned, contractor-operated ammunition and explosives plant is the largest capacity supplier of high performance explosives in the country. Among the many unique products produced here are the explosive powders used to trigger nuclear weapons. The 6,000-acre installation has 141 munitions storage magazines, and was operated by the Holston Chemical Company, a subsidiary of the Eastman Chemical Company (which was spun off of Kodak in 1994), from the 1940's to the late 1990's (Eastman operates one of the largest chemical plants in the country in nearby Kingsport). In 1999, Royal Ordnance, a division of English defense giant BAE, took over operations. Holston AAP has two locations, Plant A and Plant B, separated by 4 miles, but connected by a rail line. It is the only site in the US for the production of certain types of explosives, including HMX and RDX.