Disposing of The Nuclear Age

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President Bush may have struck a blow for world peace with his nuclear- weapons-reduction speech last month, but he has also handed a heavy burden to the atomic-arms industry. By the latest calculation, there are over 3,000 warheads headed for early retirement, containing about 25 tons of enriched uranium and 10 tons of plutonium -- both radioactive and both difficult to dispose of. Moreover, the Department of Energy's Pantex bomb-assembly facility near Amarillo, Texas, which was expecting to build some 3,500 warheads over the next few years, suddenly has to reverse gears and begin dismantling weapons. Says Thomas Cochran, a nuclear-arms expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council: "It's doable, but if weapons production continues, it will strain the system."

Technically speaking, the process of decommissioning nukes is not very complicated -- and in fact some 40,000 of the 60,000 weapons built since 1945 have already been retired, mostly because of obsolescence. After deactivation of their electronic triggers, the warheads are loaded back into their original, customized packing crates and, if overseas, flown back to the U.S. Under heavy guard, they are then shipped to Pantex by truck or train, along routes that are constantly changed and always kept secret. The most sensitive part of disassembly comes not in handling the uranium and highly toxic plutonium, which are shielded in metal, but in dealing with the conventional explosives needed to trigger a nuclear chain reaction. Disassembly therefore takes place in underground bunkers known as "Gravel Gerties," whose roofs are mounded with gravel to contain any accidental blasts.

Once disassembly is complete, the real question arises. What to do with the leftover radioactive material from the bombs? When nuclear weapons were a growth industry, their parts could be recycled into new nukes. Now, however, the most readily reusable weapons ingredient is tritium, a radioactive gas used in some warheads to increase the power of the nuclear reaction. Tritium decays rapidly, so existing bombs must be periodically replenished. This tritium windfall may even keep the Department of Energy from reactivating the accident-prone Savannah River plant near Aiken, S.C., where the gas is manufactured.

But aside from some uranium that will be recycled for use in nuclear-powered submarines, most of the fuel will have to be stored or dumped as waste. Unfortunately, the nation does not have a reliable, long-term plan for disposing of this deadly material. Most will probably be stockpiled at weapons plants, but there is a danger of loss, theft and environmental damage from mishandling.