Nuclear Deterrence

Tritium Supply

The Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE), part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s operations, is designed and operated to supply and process tritium, an isotope of hydrogen gas that is a vital component of nuclear weapons. Tritium in the weapons stockpile must be replenished continually because it decays at the rate of 5.5 percent each year. SRTE assists in accomplishing this task by recycling tritium from existing warheads and by extracting tritium from target rods irradiated in nuclear reactors operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The recycled and extracted gases are purified to produce tritium suitable for use. This purified gas is then loaded into stainless steel containers called reservoirs. Tritium reservoirs are then shipped to the Department of War, where they are installed in the nuclear weapons.

Nuclear Stockpile Maintenance

SRTE’s role in Nuclear Stockpile Maintenance is the replenishment of gas transfer systems, which improves the performance of nuclear weapons. “War Reserve” reservoirs (stainless steel containers that have passed rigorous quality checks) are loaded with a mixture of tritium and deuterium gas, finished, assembled, inspected, packaged, and shipped to the Department of War.

Nuclear Stockpile Evaluation

In the absence of nuclear weapons testing, weapon designers must rely on surveillance data to certify the reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons. Select gas transfer systems are removed from the active stockpile, and are sent to SRTE for function testing. In these critical tests, a squib valve fires to open a hole in the reservoir stem, and surveillance specialists verify that the fill gas is delivered as expected. Prior to or during function testing, the reservoirs may be subjected to one or more conditioning steps that simulate forces potentially experienced during use, such as thermal extremes, vibration, centrifugal force, and drop tests. Metallographic evaluation and/or burst testing are performed following the function test to obtain valuable information about reservoir integrity, crucial to ensuring reliability of the weapons systems and leading to safer designs.

Helium-3 Recovery

Helium-3, a byproduct of tritium, plays a vital role in various fields such as scientific research, energy development, industrial applications, medical advancements, and Homeland Security initiatives. At SRTE, helium-3 is carefully recovered, purified, and bottled to meet these critical demands. Notably, Savannah River Site (SRS) is the exclusive source of helium-3 in the United States

Research and Development

SRTE’s facilities provide a capability not available anywhere else to safely perform research and development involving large quantities of tritium.

A relationship with Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) enables SRTE to play a key role in the development of new reservoir designs and to deliver tritium science and technology leadership that enables a reliable, sustainable and cost effective NNSA tritium enterprise.