-Caveat Lector-

http://www.oakridger.com/stories/120899/stt_1208990027.html

Story last updated at 12:29 p.m. on Wednesday, December 8, 1999

TVA approved to make bomb material at commercial reactor

by Duncan Mansfield
Associated Press

KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee Valley Authority directors today approved a contract
to  make a key component for nuclear bombs, marking the first time in U.S.
history that a  commercial reactor will be used to produce the material.

The board voted 3-0 for the contract to produce tritium for the U.S. Energy
Department  at its Watts Bar plant in Spring City, about 55 miles southwest
of Knoxville.

The vote came after the board heard from a half-dozen opponents who said it
is wrong  for the U.S. government to make the material as it seeks
nonproliferation agreements to cut  the world's nuclear weapons stockpile.

"I'm asking you in the name of God to say no to this madness," said Erik
Johnson, a Presbyterian minister from Maryville.

Ralph Hutchison of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance said TVA was
sending  the wrong message to the rest of the world.

"They're watching what we do, not listening to what we say," he said.

Tritium is a hydrogen isotope that enhances the explosive power of nuclear
warheads.  Last year, the U.S. House approved legislation that would have
blocked the use of a  commercial reactor to make tritium, but the measure
failed in the Senate.

No other country is known to be using a commercial reactor to make nuclear
bomb  material. However, an article in Jane's Intelligence Review last year
suggested India obtained  tritium for its nuclear tests from a commercial
reactor.

Jack Bailey, a TVA vice president for engineering who headed contract
negotiations,  said the agency relied heavily on a report issued in July
1998 that concluded "there were no international laws or agreements that
would prohibit the production of tritium."

The report was written by officials with the Department of Defense, White
House and  other federal agencies and offices.

TVA, the nation's largest public power producer, was picked by the Energy
Department  last December to be the U.S. government's new source for
tritium. For the last year, officials  with the two agencies worked on a
contract.

DOE officials say tritium isn't controlled by international nonproliferation
agreements because it is not a so-called "fissile material" -- plutonium and
highly enriched uranium  -- that could produce an explosion on its own.

"The contract to produce tritium is essential to the Department of Energy's
stockpile stewardship program to maintain the safety and the reliability of
the U.S. nuclear  weapons deterrent," DOE spokesman Matthew Donoghue said
Tuesday.

"It is essential for the Department of Energy in fulfilling its national
security mission."

In seeking the contract for tritium production, TVA wanted the Energy
Department to  help it complete the utility's unfinished Bellefonte nuclear
station in north Alabama and use it  to make the material, then split the
profits from electric sales. DOE rejected the proposal  as too expensive.

DOE accepted TVA's backup proposal to use its operating Watts Bar plant as
the  primary tritium source and the Sequoyah station near Chattanooga as an
alternate.

TVA already has conducted a successful tritium test production run at Watts
Bar.

Tritium is a fast-decaying element. DOE hasn't produced any new tritium
since it closed  its production reactors at the Savannah River Site in South
Carolina in 1988. It has been  recycling tritium out of retired weapons
since then.

DOE estimates it will need new tritium by 2005, meaning the first
tritium-producing  rods would need to go into a TVA reactor by 2003.

Under terms of the contract, the Energy Department will pay TVA up to $9.9
million  per year to make tritium. The contract could begin as soon as 2003
and run until 2035, when  Watts Bar is scheduled to close.

The plan is for the tritium to be extracted at Savannah River.


                            All Contents.©Copyright The Oak Ridger

--
-----------------------
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
-----------------------

DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing!  These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically  by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html

http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Om

Reply via email to