RE: Tritium in old nuclear weapons

[Perron Harvard C PSNS <perronh@psns.navy.mil>]

I was under the impression that the tritium supplied the fuel for the fusion
reaction which boosted the overall yield of the weapon and the fission
reaction provided the conditions (heat and pressure) necessary to initiate
the fusion reaction.

H. Perron 
Health Physicist
perronh@psns.navy.mil

-----Original Message-----
From: rick.haynes@srs.gov [mailto:rick.haynes@srs.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 3:58 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Tritium in old nuclear weapons



Sorry about the last e-mail.  That was actually my first response to a
radsafe e-mail.  I attached it to a summary, apparently that doesn't work.
Anyway, someone asked about the tritium in old nuclear weapons.

Tritium gas has a "limited life" in the weapon due to its decay to He-3.
Because of this, the tritium bottle in the weapon is changed out on a
periodic basis.  The tritium bottle is removed from the weapon, replaced
with a "fresh" bottle, and the old bottle is returned to the Savannah River
Site (SRS) near Aiken, SC, where the tritium is recovered to be reused.
When the weapon is retired, the tritium bottle is removed and returned to
the SRS where the tritium/He-3 mixture is removed from the bottle, and the
tritium is again recovered and reused.  The half-life of tritium is around
12-yrs.  The tritium is used "boost" the yield of the weapon by providing
more neutrons which allows more fissions to take place in the primary
system.

Rick


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