TVA TO MAKE TRITIUM FOR ATOMIC WEAPONS

Abstract

Tritium gas for nuclear weapons will be made in Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) electricity-producing nuclear reactors under a plan announced on Dec. 22, 1998, by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. Richardson's decision will expand a 15-month-old Department of Energy pilot project at TVA's Watts Bar reactor in Spring City, Tenn., in which special lithium rods inserted into reactor fuel elements produce and capture tritium. DOE's plan also holds open the option of using TVA Sequoyah's two light-water reactors in Soddy Daisy, Tenn., to produce tritium, if needed. The Watts Bar plan is the cheapest of several proposals DOE was considering for producing the gas, a radioactive hydrogen isotope that decays at a rate of 5.5% per year. It is used to increase the power of nuclear weapons (CE ...