NEWS OF THE WEEK
NUCLEAR ARMS PROGRAM: Reactor problems continue unabated Embarrassed Department of Energy officials admitted last week that changes the department has made in oversight failed to prevent operating problems on Jan. 22 at one of its aging Savannah River plant's nuclear reactors. Concern that mishaps are still occurring probably will delay DOE's plans to restart reactors there later this year. All three of Savannah River's reactors—the nation's only source of tritium for nuclear weapons—are currently shut down. The latest incident was described to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee by Troy E. Wade II, DOE's acting assistant secretary for defense programs. Operators at Savannah River failed to abort a test of the backup cooling system when a valve was mistakenly left open, releasing a large surge of coolant that damaged several other valves and pipes. Inexplicably, the operators continued with the test. "I have a sense of déjà vu," said committee chairman Sen. John D. Glenn (D.-Ohio), referring to earlier accidents at Savannah River. "It's the same appalling, cavalier attitude again." Frustrated DOE officials blame complacent m a n a g e m e n t at t h e plant, which has been run for the department by Du Pont since it was built in the 1950s. DOE began last summer to beef up its oversight of contractors at its nuclear facilities to head off such problems, but the resident safety inspector at Savannah River was not informed of the latest incident for two days. "This was not an isolated event," said Richard W. Starostecki, DOE's deputy assistant secretary for safety, health, and quality assurance. "Competent and experienced management would not allow this to continue." 4
January 30, 1989 C&EN
Glenn: a sense of déjà vu Management at Savannah River is in a transition period, as Du Pont decided in late 1987 to pull out. Westinghouse Electric Corp. takes over in May. Sen. Glenn convened the hearing to probe DOE's plans to modernize and clean up—at an estimated public cost of well over $80 billion—its nuclear weapons production complex there and in other parts of the country. Problems of obsolete equipment and environmental and safety violations pervade many of the DOE facilities. However, last summer's shutdown of Savannah River's reactors, triggered by both equipment and operating problems, has heightened concern. DOE and the Department of Defense fear a shortage of tritium, which boosts the yield of nuclear explosions. The 12.3-year half-life of tritium means it must be replenished in warheads regularly. DOE is not currently p r o d u c i n g any weapons-grade plutonium, either, but that material's longer lifetime
means there is no foreseeable shortage. "For the first time since World War II, the U.S. government has been forced to suspend production of nuclear warhead materials," Glenn said as he opened the hearing. "Failure to resume production of tritium could possibly force the government to cannibalize some part of our nuclear arsenal as an alternative to risking serious accidents at DOE's aging production reactors." In a recent report to Congress, dubbed the "2010 report," DOE describes what it must do in the next 21 years to modernize and clean up its entire nuclear weapons program. It proposes to upgrade many of its plants, including Savannah River. The department wants to ensure the supply of tritium by building two new production reactors at two separate locations using two different technologies. The "2010 report" estimates the additional cost of the entire modernization program at $81 billion over 20 years. Glenn criticized the plan at the hearing, however, for neglecting environmental concerns. "Unfortunately, the '2010' study is shortchanging cleanup at the expense of production—a policy that got us into this mess in the first place," he said. He pointed out that so much waste has been accumulating that the ultimate cleanup costs could reach $150 million. Out of the $9 billion proposed budget for DOE's nuclear weapons programs in fiscal year 1990, about $1.3 billion is to begin work on facilities modernization. Another $1.9 billion is budgeted for environment, safety, and health programs, but only $315 million of that is for cleanup—a figure G l e n n thinks is too low. Pamela Zurer
