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Twenty tons of uranium could be used to produce tritium for nuclear weapons

Posted at 12:08 pm September 14, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image courtesy NNSA

Image courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration. SRS is the Savannah River Site.

 

About 20 metric tons of highly enriched uranium could be “down-blended” to low-enriched uranium and transferred to the Tennessee Valley Authority for use as a fuel to produce tritium for nuclear weapons, according to a public notice published in the Federal Register this week.

The project involves the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City in Rhea County, among other sites.

The National Nuclear Security Administration and TVA announced in August that they intend to enter into an agreement to “down-blend” highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium in order to help produce tritium, a key “boosting” component in nuclear weapons.

The highly enriched uranium used for the “down-blending” will be processed, packaged, and shipped from Y-12, according to the NNSA. Y-12 is an NNSA site, and it is the main storage facility for certain categories of highly enriched uranium. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, National Nuclear Security Administration, Slider, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: DOE, down-blend, down-blended, down-blending, Federal Register, Fiscal Year 2018 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, highly enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA, nuclear weapons, Philip T. Calbos, public notice, Rick Perry, Savannah River Site, Tennessee Valley Authority, TPBAR, tritium, tritium production, tritium-producing burnable absorber rod, TVA, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, uranium enrichment, uranium transfers, Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Y-12 National Security Complex

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