Disarmament Diplomacy
Issue No. 13, February - March 1997
US Department of Energy Press Releases:
National Ignition Facility; Tritium Programme
National Ignition Facility
'Construction Approved for National Ignition Facility:
World's Largest Laser to Support Nuclear Test Ban, Reinforce US
Scientific Leadership,' Department of Energy (DOE) Press Release,
R-97-013, 11 March 1997
Full text
"The Department of Energy (DOE) has approved the start of
construction of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at DOE's
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which will house the
world's largest laser and create conditions similar to the center
of the sun and other stars. The facility will play a vital role in
DOE's science-based stockpile stewardship and management program to
maintain the US nuclear weapons stockpile without underground
testing. Groundbreaking for the $1.2 billion, 192-beam
stadium-sized laser center is anticipated within the next few
weeks.
'The National Ignition Facility will help the United States meet
the conditions of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and reduce the
global nuclear danger. The country will also benefit from cutting
edge science in astrophysics and fusion energy,' said Charles B.
Curtis, Acting Secretary of Energy.
Bruce Tarter, director of the laboratory based in Livermore, CA,
said 'The National Ignition Facility will make a fundamental
contribution to our technical understanding of aging nuclear
weapons. The hundreds of men and women who have carried us to this
point are now ready to convert this critical scientific effort into
concrete, steel and lasers.'
The National Ignition Facility will direct the energy of 192
laser beams onto a small (one millimeter) capsule containing
isotopes of hydrogen to induce a fusion reaction that will produce
more energy than comes from the laser beam, simulating reactions in
the explosion of thermonuclear warheads. Temperatures in the fuel
capsule at NIF could reach 100 million degrees with pressures 100
billion times that of the earth's atmosphere. When used with other
data and advanced computational capability, results from this work
will allow assessment, without testing, of the reliability of the
nation's nuclear stockpile as it ages.
Upon completion NIF will be a multipurpose research facility
with defense and civilian applications such as fusion energy
research and astrophysics. NIF will have 50 times the energy of any
laser now in existence and will produce, for the first time in a
laboratory setting, conditions of matter close to those that occur
in the center of the sun and other stars.
President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in
September 1996 and has pledged to pursue experimental means of
maintaining confidence in the reliability and performance of
nuclear weapons. Livermore was selected as the NIF site in December
1996, following the November release of the Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement on the Stockpile Stewardship and
Management Program, DOE's comprehensive plan for maintaining the
safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear stockpile through
science. Funding to begin site preparation for NIF was included in
the FY 97 congressional appropriation. Full construction funding is
requested in the FY 98 congressional budget request.
Construction of NIF will create almost 900 long-term jobs in the
San Francisco Bay area where Lawrence Livermore lab is located.
About 6,000 jobs nationally and 3,000 locally will be created
during the peak construction period between 1998 and 2000."
Tritium Programme
'Another Step Toward Presidential Goal: New Tritium Supply by
2005,' Department of Energy Press Release, R-97-006, 7 February
1997
Extracts
"The Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
1 has been selected by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to conduct a one-time
confirmatory test of components that could be used in the
production of tritium.
DOE announced the test as part of DOE's 'dual track' strategy to
develop a new assured source of tritium to support national
security requirements. The tritium program is a key element in
DOE's Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program to ensure the
safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile without
testing. A new tritium production source is expected to be selected
by 1998.
'This test will provide confidence to the nuclear industry and
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission [NRC], which regulates these
plants, that making tritium in a light water reactor is technically
straightforward and safe,' said Charles Curtis, Acting Secretary of
Energy. 'It will be a significant step forward in support of DOE's
obligation to provide an assured cost-effective source of tritium
when required.'
Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen that is required by all US
nuclear weapons in order to function as designed. Because it decays
at a rate of about 5 percent per year, it must be replaced
periodically. The US has not produced tritium since 1988, when the
last tritium production reactor was shut down at DOE's Savannah
River Site. By Presidential Directive, the department must have a
new supply of tritium available by 2005. ...
The Watts Bar test involves placement of a few specially
designed twelve-foot 'target' rods into four of the nearly two
hundred regular fuel assemblies in the plant's reactor core. These
targets, which contain no uranium or plutonium, are designed to
replace a standard component of reactor fuel assemblies. During the
plant's normal 18-month operating cycle, the rods will produce and
retain small amounts of tritium. Following the test, the rods will
be shipped by a DOE carrier to PNNL for disassembly and
examination. The test will produce about an ounce of tritium, none
of which will be used in nuclear weapons.
Previously, DOE has tested smaller rod segments in one of its
test reactors with excellent results. The Watts Bar test is
intended to confirm those results using rods of the same length as
those now typically used in commercial reactors. The test program
will not change the basic operation of Watts Bar nor will it
invalidate any of the rigorous reviews conducted during the plant
licensing process. Watts Bar 1 will continue to operate and
maintain equipment to high standards, as well as conduct
appropriate plant testing and monitoring activities. ...
The test program and rod shipments will be conducted in full
compliance with the strict federal regulations applicable to
nuclear power plants. A report documenting the design of the rods
to be used in the test and associated safety analyses has recently
been completed by PNNL for DOE and is now being reviewed by the
NRC.
'The reliable and safe performance of these rods have been
proven in previous tests,' explained Dr. Jerry Ethridge, PNNL's
Battelle Project Manager. 'The Watts Bar test will allow us to
confirm the outstanding prior results in a large reactor and
demonstrate that the department's tritium production goals can be
met easily using commercial reactors, without impacting their safe
and efficient operation.'"
© 1998 The Acronym Institute.
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