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Watts Bar may boost production of key nuclear weapons material

Staff file photo / Both cooling towers release steam at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tennessee. Since 2003, the nuclear plant has helped produce tritium, a key component in America's nuclear arsenal, for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the military is planning on boosting tritium production, subject to final regulatory approval. Staff file photo / Both cooling towers release steam at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tennessee. Since 2003, the nuclear plant has helped produce tritium, a key component in America's nuclear arsenal, for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the military is planning on boosting tritium production, subject to final regulatory approval.

By Dave Flessner February 26, 2024 6 min read

The Tennessee Valley Authority may soon boost its production of a key component of America’s nuclear arsenal at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tennessee, despite concerns by some environmentalists the move could threaten East Tennessee water supplies and criticism by anti-nuclear activists that the move further violates international nuclear arms agreements.

Nuclear regulators said last week there is no significant environmental risk at Watts Bar if the plant increases the irradiation of production of tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen needed to turn an atomic bomb into a far more explosive hydrogen bomb.

TVA says such work is part of its national defense mandate spelled out in its charter and has been safely conducted at Watts Bar for nearly two decades to help replenish tritium supplies that decay over time.

The military says it needs the tritium to maintain its nuclear arsenal and has turned to TVA, the only federal utility operating a nuclear plant that can irradiate tritium-producing rods during normal plant operations.