TVA plan to produce tritium back on track

TV A plan to produce
tritium back on track

BY ANDY SHER
WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — Tennessee Valley Authority Chairman Glenn McCullough said the federal utility intends to proceed with plans to produce nuclear bomb material at two TVA commercial nuclear plants near Chattanooga and Spring City, Tenn.

During a trip to Washington this week, Mr. McCullough said TVA continues to work with the Department of Energy and other agencies "to meet the expectations that they outlined" for producing tritium at the Sequoyah and Watts Bar nuclear plants.

Tritium is a short-lived hydrogen isotope gas that boosts the explosive power of nuclear warheads.

Opponents to TVA's planned tritium production contend that producing the material at the agency's commercial nuclear plants could make the plants, now surrounded by subdivisions, more susceptible to terrorist attacks.

"The agreement to produce tritium goes back to 1999," Mr. McCullough said. "We're working cooperatively with the Department of Defense to make sure that we follow the proper guidelines."

TVA spokesman John Moulton said TVA officials "currently believe the security for nuclear plants is adequate for the production of tritium."

Nuclear plants operated by TVA and other utilities nationwide have gone on the highest level of alert since Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.

Mr. McCullough told a congressional panel here Wednesday that TVA is discussing having National Guard units in Tennessee.

Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky help guard the agency's facilities, including power plants.

Representatives of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and Kenneth Bergeron, a retired physicist, question whether anyone in government is adequately taking into account increased risk factors they say exist in having commercial reactors produce tritium for military purposes.

"This deal makes TVA not only an electric utility but part of the weapons complex," said Mr. Bergeron, who spent 25 years at Sandia National Laboratories and also worked on security issues under contract with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Mr. Bergeron said someone "should be taking a look at how that change from being purely commercial to having dual commercial and military (use) is going to change the probability of a sabotage attack. Nobody's looking at that as part of their licensing. They're not required to."

He said the Savannah River Site, the South Carolina location where tritium was produced for the military until 1988, is a large, secure installation.

That facility is on a 310-square-mile reservation. An official with the Nuclear Control Institute, which advocates stronger security for all nuclear plants, described the Savannah River Site as nearly "fortress."

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, predicted the Sequoyah and Watts Bar plants could become more vulnerable if they begin producing tritium.

"The fact that there is a nuclear power plant owned by the federal government that is producing material for a nuclear weapon, I think that would probably make it a better target for a terrorist," Mr. Smith said.

Ralph Hutchison of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance said terrorists "would look for the most vulnerable production facility, and Watts Bar would be the one because it's the least secure and least guarded as a weapons production facility."

But Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., and officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration said critics of the tritium production plan are overstating matters to accomplish their goals.

"I would suggest that most of the people, if not all the people, who oppose producing tritium in a commercial nuclear plant are simply against nuclear power or against nuclear weapons," Rep. Wamp said.

He said the fear of a nuclear reactor's being the target of terrorist activities "in my view is overstated."

Steve Sohinki, director of tritium production for the Department of Energy, said the TVA sites are secure and have "substantial security."

"Obviously it's something we've talked about," Mr. Sohinki said. "The only question is, do additional security measures need to be taken because we're doing this?" he said. "And I think the conclusion thus far is no."

He said tritium is produced commercially in Canada, and he and other DOE officials downplayed any risk, noting that the rods subjected to radiation in Tennessee will be trucked to the Savannah River Site for actual processing into tritium gas.

Mr. Sohinki said the final decision rests with TVA and the NRC, which is considering TVA's proposed amendments to its operating licenses.

TVA submitted a request Aug. 20 to produce tritium at Watts Bar. The Sequoyah plant would be used as a backup. TVA submitted that amendment on Sept. 21 — 10 days after the terrorist strikes in New York and Washington.

Roger Hannah, a spokesman in the NRC's Region II office in Atlanta, said the question of whether tritium production would boost the possibility of terrorist acts on the TVA facilities normally would not be part of the NRC's consideration. But he said such considerations might well become factors.

"After Sept. 11, all of our security regulations and procedures and everything are essentially on the table," Mr. Hannah said.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous agency of the Department of Energy, maintains the safety, reliability and performance of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

Anson Franklin, the administrative, intergovernmental and public affairs, dismissed concerns about increased odds of attack on the TVA plants.

"That gets into the realm of speculation, and I think some of the people who are raising some of these issues might have their own agenda," he said. "We are taking every effort to ensure that our nuclear weapons production facilities are secure and will continue to be secure."

E-mail Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com