On December 22, 1998, the Department of Energy(DOE) announced its selection of the Tennessee Valley Authority's(TVA) Watts Bar and Sequoyah nuclear power plants to supply irradiation services to replenish tritium lost due to radioactive decay in the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons. Seviral key issues remain, however, that are likely to be of concern to the Congress as it reviews DOE's tritium production program during consideration of the FY2000 defense authorization bill, and the FY2000 energy and water development appropriations bill. Questions about the costs of the various options, including the potential for offsetting revenues resulting from medical isotope production and accelerator transmutation of nuclear waste, do not appear to have been completely addressed. In addtion, concerns remain about whether use of a commercial nuclear power plant to produce tritium for weapons purposes constitutes a nuclear proliferation risk. This report addresses these issues. It supplements CRS Issue Brief 97002, The Department of Energy's Tritium Production Program. The report should be useful to Members and staff in considering the DOE tritium production program. The report will be updated as legislative and DOE actions dictate.
