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United States: Commercial Plant Wins Approval to Make Tritium The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Monday approved a plan to make tritium at the Watts Bar commercial nuclear power plant near Spring City, Tenn. (see GSN, June 28). The United States stopped producing tritium, an isotope of hydrogen used in nuclear weapons, in 1989, but it has sought to resume production to replace losses caused by natural radioactive decay. The use of a commercial plant has raised concerns. “It crosses the imaginary line that separates the civilian nuclear industry and military production in the U.S.,” said Bob Schaeffer of the Alliance For Nuclear Accountability. “This is the first time that the U.S. is using a civilian power reactor to make nuclear weapons” (Associated Press, Sept. 25). Irradiated tritium-producing burnable absorber rods are to be taken from the Watts Bar facility in Tennessee to Savannah River, S.C., where Energy Department technicians will extract the tritium. “Producing tritium is a key element in the U.S. national security strategy to maintain an effective nuclear deterrent,” said Linton Brooks, acting administrator of the department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (Energy Department release, Sept. 24).
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