Tritium Reactor May Be Back in Use Next July

The Energy Department has decided after a lengthy review to recommend restarting a troubled South Carolina nuclear reactor in July, 1990, so it can resume production of tritium, a vital component of nuclear weapons, government sources said Wednesday.

The new timetable means that operation of the tritium-producing reactor at Savannah River will be delayed at least six months beyond the target previously set by the department.

But Energy Secretary James D. Watkins plans to tell President Bush and other members of the National Security Council next week that the delay will not jeopardize national security or require extraordinary interim measures, the sources said.

The government has not produced tritium since the last of three nuclear reactors at the massive Savannah River facility was closed for safety reasons a year ago. Tritium, a gas, is used to boost a weapon’s explosive force. But it decays at a rate of 5.5% annually and must be regularly replenished to keep the U.S. nuclear arsenal fully operational.

Because of the military implications, the new timetable will be subject to Bush’s approval.

Besides restarting Savannah River’s K reactor in roughly 10 months, the department wants to restart the other two reactors three months and six months later. The plan calls also for mothballing an older production reactor at Hanford, Wash., that is being kept on standby at substantial expense.

Production and storage of tritium in small bottles for insertion into nuclear weapons will not begin until the reactors have completed preliminary safety checks and partly spent reactor fuel elements have been reprocessed, steps that could take up to nine additional months.