As anticipated, the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), serving its Department of Defense (DOD) client, has instructed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to take steps to increase production of tritium gas in the commercial Watts Bar Nuclear Bomb Reactors (WBNBRs) in Tennessee. See link below to a January 19, 2022 NRC-TVA meeting on the matter – please join the meeting and make a comment during the public comment period.
Production of tritium for nuclear weapons in commercial reactors poses an international nuclear proliferation hazard and obliterates the claim of separation of the commercial and military nuclear fuel cycles. It appears that DOD wants to fill all tritium containers to full capacity to make nuclear weapons perform to their full design capacity – a clear sign that the US continues to plan for full-scale nuclear war no matter the cost or risk to our collective security.
Radioactive tritium is used in all nuclear weapons to boost the explosive power of the weapons. Tritium rods – Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rods (TPBARs) – are irradiated in the commercial TVA reactors and processed at the DOE’s Savannah River Site, where the tritium gas is put in small reservoirs inserted into all nuclear weapons. Tritium processing at SRS has posed worker exposure concerns, as noted in reports and letters by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
NRC-TVA meeting on tritium production – please join and make a public comment:
“01/19/2022 Meeting with Tennessee Valley Authority Regarding Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, Tritium Producing Burnable Absorption Rods” – meeting notice posted here:
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML22006A248
For background information on tritium, TPBARs, tritium production by TVA and the key role of the Westinghouse commercial nuclear fuel plant (in Columbia, SC) , see the SRS Watch report of November 2021: Crossing the Line. The report exposes how the imaginary line between commercial and military uses of technology has been destroyed by the US in its continuous and dangerous preparation for full-scale nuclear war. This report will be submitted for the record of the NRC-TVA meeting.
SRS watch news release on role of Westinghouse in tritium production & planning for nuclear war, in The State, Columbia, SC, November 19, 2021:
“Details of Secretive Activities at Westinghouse Dual-Use Commercial-Military Facility Revealed in SRS Watch Report on Tritium & Nuclear Weapons” – https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/SRS-Watch-news-report-tritium-rods-Westinghouse-Nov-19-2021.pdf
DOE photo is of a tritium canister. Dimensions of the “reservoir.” which would be inserted into a nuclear warhead, are classified.