Arms Plants to Reopen on Speeded Basis : Defense: Secretary Watkins admits his timetable for nuclear production is ‘ambitious.’ Some in Congress fear safety has low priority.

Two vital components of the nation’s crippled nuclear weapons production complex will resume operating before the end of this year, Energy Secretary James D. Watkins told Congress Wednesday.

The projected timetable, which Watkins admitted is “ambitious,” aroused skepticism from some members of the House Armed Services defense nuclear subcommittee, who also expressed concern that the expedited schedule might give short shrift to safety concerns.

“I don’t see how we can start up so fast,” said Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.).

But Watkins said the production of tritium at the Savannah River plant in South Carolina and reprocessing of plutonium at Rocky Flats in Colorado would have resumed two months ago, were it not for his heightened concern for safety.

Watkins said he is imposing a margin of safety that will be “significantly greater” than that in place at the time the two facilities were shut down.

DOE has been unable to assemble nuclear weapons at various times over the last several years because many of its vital facilities have been taken out of commission due to concerns about worker safety, mismanagement and environmental contaminations. DOE runs 17 contractor-operated facilities in 12 states.

Watkins assured the panel that DOE would not resume operations at either Rocky Flats or Savannah River until it receives the endorsement of two oversight committees--the Watkins-appointed Advisory Committee on Nuclear Facility Safety and the congressionally mandated Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, whose members are named by President Bush.

“What we’ll do is look at how adequate the progress has been to solving the problems, and we’ll give our frank assessment,” John F. Ahearne, chairman of the advisory committee and ex-chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in a separate interview Wednesday.

Savannah River is the sole producer of tritium, a gaseous, radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is needed to enhance the explosive power of nuclear warheads. The three reactors at the Aiken, S.C., facility have been closed for nearly two years.

Watkins said on Wednesday that he plans to have one reactor back on line in the final quarter of this year and the other two in 1991.

Rocky Flats, just outside of Denver, makes plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. It has been closed since December, supposedly for routine maintenance. But it has not reopened because of continuing safety and environmental concerns, as well as the need to give the new contractor, EG&G; of Wellesley, Mass., time to install its management team.

The continuing problems at Rocky Flats are threatening the deployment of various nuclear weapons, most immediately the Navy’s $62-billion Trident submarine program. The Navy has only enough nuclear weapons on hand to equip the first two Tridents by the end of summer, officials have said.

Whether Watkins’ timetable can be met remains in some doubt. Several environmental groups have said they would sue the Energy Department to block any resumption at the facilities.

Among the skeptics of Watkins’ prediction was David Lewis, legislative director of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “I don’t think the public will be happy at all with the restart plan, which doesn’t address all the problems specifically,” he said. “And it doesn’t put a schedule on solving them. There’s no road map for which problems will be solved and when. There’s no timetable.”