Word: tritium
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...plants in the U.S. have now been shut down. They are the pioneering Hanford facility in Washington, where eight reactors have been deactivated and the remaining one is on indefinite standby; the Savannah River complex, where all three operational reactors are down, knocking out the only means of producing tritium, a hydrogen isotope that boosts the explosive power of nearly all the 22,000 U.S. nuclear warheads; the plutonium-processing plant at Rocky Flats near Boulder, Colo.; and the deceptively named Feed Materials Production Center, in Fernald, Ohio, where some workers are striking for higher wages and safer conditions...
Energy Secretary John Herrington readily admits that safety fell by the wayside in the past as "things got too cozy" with plant contractors. Despite the growing public outcry, however, he plans to restart one tritium-producing reactor at Savannah River in December and another early next year. Herrington, a lawyer and Reagan appointee, has taken commendable steps to infuse a safety- conscious attitude at the weapons facilities. But he has failed to heed complaints from environmentalists and Congressmen who believe the plant should remain closed until DOE files an environmental-impact statement on the 300- sq.-mi. facility...
...extended shutdown could cause real trouble. If tritium production at Savannah River is not resumed within a year or so, says Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Robert Barker, "we will begin to disarm unilaterally." Even as such alarms are being sounded, however, there is little sense of urgency at the White House about either the danger to national security or the threat to people living in potentially irradiated environments near the DOE facilities. "The Energy Department is managing the situation very well," says B. Jay Cooper, a White House spokesman. Intent on keeping the issue from being politicized...
Herrington assured Reagan that DOE was still capable of making nuclear bombs and announced that the agency plans as early as late December to restart at least one of its beleaguered Savannah River reactors in South Carolina, where production of tritium was halted for safety reasons in August. Still, many question whether DOE will be ready any time soon to make radioactive materials for weapons safely and without further damage to the environment. "The Department of Energy is solving problems as they arise," charged Democratic Congressman Mike Synar of Oklahoma. "What we need is a serious overhaul of DOE oversight...
...acre site, even though two of Savannah River's five reactors are shut down permanently, and the others are not allowed to run at full power in part because of deficiencies in their emergency cooling systems. Still, the plant is the sole supplier of plutonium and tritium, the flint and steel of nuclear warheads. While the nation probably has all the plutonium it needs, tritium, which enhances plutonium's yield, has a half-life of twelve years and must be continuously produced to maintain the nation's nuclear stockpile...