FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 1996NEWS MEDIA CONTACTS:
Barbara Wetherell/Matthew Donoghue: 202/586-5806
Al Stotts in Albuquerque: 505/845-6094
Rick Ford at Savannah River: 803/725-2889
Energy Department Moves Forward Along Dual Path to Tritium Production
New Contractor to Perform Demonstration Activities, Design New Plant
As part of its dual-track strategy to provide a new tritium source for the country's nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Department of Energy has selected a prime contractor to support the accelerator option for producing the radioactive gas.Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O'Leary announced today that Burns and Roe Enterprises Inc. (BREI) of Oradell, N.J., has been selected to perform demonstration activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and design an Accelerator Production of Tritium plant (APT) for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. If the accelerator option is selected in 1998 as the primary technology, the company would support construction of the plant, which would be fully operational by 2007. The nearly $3 billion contract has been awarded by the Department's Albuquerque Operations Office.
"The Burns and Roe proposal will provide the government the best opportunity to obtain the essential accelerator production capabilities for tritium on schedule at the lowest cost to the government," said O'Leary. "The company's cradle-to-grave experience developing first-of-kind facilities with complex technologies gives us confidence that the job will be done right."
BREI designs and builds power plants, including coal and nuclear plants. It also builds systems for treating hazardous and radioactive wastes, as well as pharmaceutical, chemical, and petrochemical processing plants.
Tritium, which activates the fusion stage of a nuclear weapon, decays 5.5 percent a year and must be replenished periodically. The United States has not produced this gas since 1988 but has relied on tritium from dismantled weapons to meet U.S. national security requirements. Based on current arms control agreements and on nuclear weapons stockpile plans, a new tritium production source will be required in the 2005 to 2007 time frame.
Last December the Department decided to explore two promising methods of producing tritium: the use of an existing commercial light water reactor and the construction of a linear accelerator. In 1998 the Department will select one method to be primary, and the other will serve as backup. Both options have attractive characteristics. The accelerator produces no high-level radioactive waste and advances the technology from a powerful tool for research to a powerful tool for production. The reactor option is likely to be the least expensive and fastest technical path to production. Both approaches have low environmental impacts.
The Secretary identified the Savannah River Site in South Carolina as the preferred site for an accelerator, if that method is selected, because of the site's long-standing expertise and capabilities in handling tritium.
- DOE -
R-96-133
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