Notes for Tritium Report

2. Commercial tritium demand is 400 grams/year (Kalinowski and Colschen 1995, p. 140). In comparison, the current U.S. arsenal of approximately 10,000 warheads requires approximately 2.2 kilograms/year (at four grams of tritium/warhead) to offset decay. Return to document.

3. Thermonuclear weapons (also known as fusion or hydrogen bombs) have a primary and a secondary stage. The primary stage is identical to a regular fission weapon and it is this stage which uses tritium. Return to document.

4. Kalinowski and Colschen 1995, p. 142. The Department of Energy classifies numbers concerning the production, inventory, and use of tritium for national security purposes. Analysts use a variety of sources to estimate tritium numbers. The data and estimates used in this paper are drawn from estimates made by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Martin Kalinowski, Lars Colschen and others.Return to document.

5. The Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Tritium Supply and Recycling (DOE 1995b) lists four possible tritium production technologies: Light Water Reactor, Heavy Water Reactor, Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor and Accelerator Production of Tritium. The chosen technology would be either at the Savannah River Site, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, Pantex Plant, or Oak Ridge Reservation. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the DOE to prepare the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) before making a decision on tritium production.Return to document.

6. Reprint of Figure ES-4 from DOE 1995b, p. ES-9.Return to document.

7. The DOE's estimates are actually less than 15 years, with no delays, for all the technologies. A commercial reactor could be ready by 2005, assuming no institutional barriers. If the DOE were to assume institutional barriers could be overcome in an emergency, it could postpone its tritium production plans by six years. See DOE 1995d Chapter 4.Return to document.

8. "Energy Department Favors Dual-Track Strategy to Meet National Security Requirements for Tritium." DOE Press Release, October 10, 1995.Return to document.

9. Surplus military plutonium could only be used if the Storage and Disposition of Weapons-Usable Fissile Materials PEIS results in a decision to use reactors for plutonium disposition.Return to document.

10. Eisenbud 1987, p. 157.Return to document.

11. Albright et. al 1993, p. 34, Cochran et. al 1987 p. 179-181, and Paine 1992.Return to document.

12. Reprinted from DOE Factsheet, "What is Tritium?"Return to document.

13. See the bibliography in Straume 1991 for a list of studies that have been conducted on the health effects of tritium.Return to document.

14. Makhijani et. al eds. 1995, p. 97.Return to document.

15. Straume 1991, p. 4.Return to document.

16. Tritium is considered to have low radiotoxicity, compared, for example with radium or cesium, because it emits relatively low energy beta particles which cannot penetrate the skin.Return to document.

17. Makhijani et. al 1995, p. 250.Return to document.

18. DOE 1995a, p. S8. Calculated for a new small to large Advanced Light Water Reactor (ALWR). As all commercial plants in the United States are light water reactors, this is representative of the range of heavy metal to be expected.Return to document.

19. DOE 1995c, p. 8. This does not include spent fuel from commercial power reactors.Return to document.

20. DOE 1995b pp. 40-478 and 40-480.Return to document.

21. DOE 1995d. The range of numbers includes two different production levels and possible revenue from the sale of electricity. The figures given are the mean discounted total life cycle costs calculated for the DOE PEIS. See Chapter 6 of DOE 1995d for a further breakdown of the possible costs of tritium production.Return to document.

22. Kalinowski and Colschen 1995 p. 143Return to document.

23. Paine 1992.Return to document.

24. The line between strategic and tactical warheads can sometimes be blurred. However, in general tactical warheads are used to change the course of a battle. That is, tactical warheads are short-range and are used in a limited manner.Return to document.

25. Cochran 1995, p. 8.Return to document.

26. The year in which new tritium production would be required is calculated using a decay rate of 5.5% per year, a 1992 tritium inventory of 88.2 kilograms, yearly commercial sales of 0.15 kilograms and five grams physically in each warhead for levels below 1,000 warheads.Return to document.

27. The DOE actually ceased commercial tritium sales in October, 1995 (personal communication with Kathy Flayler, Sales Marketing Representative at Mound, January 2, 1996). However, this decision is reversible and in order to be conservative we have not taken this into account in our calculations. If sales do not resume tritium production could be delayed even further (approximately five to ten years).Return to document.

28. Revenue losses should be below $10 million per year based on the fact that tritium sold for between $13,000 and $26,000 per gram in the 1980s.Return to document.

29. It should also be noted that incidental tritium production in Canada's CANDU reactors alone is approximately 3.5 kilograms/year, which easily satisfies worldwide commercial tritium requirements (Kalinowski and Colschen 1995, p.138). The possibility of purchasing tritium from Canada has been raised as an option. However, Canadian law bans the use of Canadian tritium for military purposes.Return to document.

30. From the notes of Navy Captain William Brigham Moore at a Strategic Air Command briefing on March 15, 1954. Reprinted in Rhodes 1995, p.563-564.Return to document.

31. Daalder 1993, pp. 6-7.Return to document.

32. The smallest warheads to remain in the post-START II stockpile will have yields comparable to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. There will also be warheads with much greater yields retained. Return to document.

33. DOE 1995a p.2-1.Return to document.

34. It should be noted that many minimum deterrence theorists see minimum deterrence as only a stage towards eventual abolition according to the obligations of the NPT.Return to document.

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

Comments to Outreach Coordinator: ieer@ieer.org
Takoma Park, Maryland, USA

Revised March 20, 1996