FPN11-47

NNSA Plans to Modernize, Consolidate Tritium Facilities at Savannah River Lab

September 1, 2011

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has announced a new plan to modernize and consolidate the tritium facilities at the Savannah River Site (SRS) as part of NNSA’s mission to turn a Cold War nuclear weapons complex into a 21st century nuclear security enterprise. The plan will lead to a combined cost savings and cost avoidance of hundreds of millions of dollars over the next two decades. Tritium, which is not available from natural resources, is an essential fuel resource for future fusion power plants. It is only available as a by-product of heavy water nuclear power plants or from weapons stockpiles.

The plan includes consolidation of existing facilities, deployment of new technology and process equipment, and demolition and removal of the old buildings. The initial activities focus on the next 10 years of improvements and consolidation of enduring infrastructure, processes and resources. According to NNSA, implementation of this effort will result in an overall lifecycle cost reduction and assurance of a safe and secure national security tritium mission at SRS.

"The plan cuts costs and reduces the number of facilities needed to process tritium while still ensuring that the nation’s stockpile is safe, secure and effective," said Don Cook, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs. "It is a clear example of NNSA’s commitment to being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money. Modernizing our nuclear security enterprise is vital to implementing President Obama’s nuclear security agenda."

Tritium is a heavy isotope of hydrogen but it decays radioactively at the rate of 5.5 percent each year and must be replenished periodically. Within the weapons complex, this is accomplished by recycling tritium from existing warheads and by extracting tritium from target rods irradiated in nuclear reactors that are operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Recycled and extracted gases are purified to produce tritium that is suitable for other uses. Fusion power plants of the future will produce their own tritium fuel in "blankets" surrounding the fusion power core but early fusion experimental devices, such as ITER, require tritium from external sources.