The Nation - News from Sept. 8, 1989

Production of tritium, a radioactive gas used to make nuclear warheads, will resume in the fall of 1990, Energy Secretary James D. Watkins said. Production had been interrupted for more than a year because of safety problems. Watkins said low-power testing of the tritium-producing K reactor at the government’s Savannah River complex in South Carolina would start late next summer. The reactors are the nation’s only source of tritium, a hydrogen isotope used to boost the destructive power of nuclear weapons. The reactors have been shut down for more than a year and have been undergoing extensive repairs and improvements to meet Watkins’ safety requirements.