NATION : U.S. to Restart Tritium Reactor

The government will restart the first of three tritium production reactors at its South Carolina atomic weapons plant in December and resume producing plutonium triggers by next July at a Colorado plant, Energy Secretary James D. Watkins said today.

Watkins told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee that four plants, including three reactors at its Savannah River complex in South Carolina, will resume producing nuclear weapons components by the end of 1991.

The three reactors have been shut down since mid-1988 over environmental and safety-related concerns. U.S. nuclear weapons production has ground to a halt in the last several months because of that and suspension of operations at the Rocky Flats plant in Colorado last November over similar concerns.

Watkins said two facilities at the Rocky Flats plant for producing the plutonium triggers in atomic warheads will resume operations in June and July.

“At this time, there does not seem to be any alternative for the nation other than keeping Rocky Flats on line to deal with warhead management,” Watkins told the strategic forces and nuclear deterrence subcommittee.