-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! 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