Tritium Sales Resumed by Energy Dept.

The Energy Department announced Friday it has resumed selling tritium to U.S. and foreign companies even though it has failed to find missing amounts of the radioactive gas that can be used in making nuclear weapons.

The department is satisfied that none of the missing material was diverted for illicit production of nuclear weapons, said spokesman Phil Keif, although a government report released Friday said investigators could not prove there was no diversion.

Keif said that of the five grams of tritium that were missing when a team of Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials began searching in June, only a small fraction of one gram has been accounted for.

The discrepancies were reported by several commercial customers, the department said.

The department usually sells about 200 grams a year of tritium to commercial users, raising about $5 million annually. Government information about tritium supplies is classified, but experts estimate that about four grams are used in a single atomic warhead as a means of boosting its explosive power.

Commercial sales were suspended in July because of the discrepancies. After revamping handling procedures, the department decided to resume sales to all customers except those for which shipment discrepancies remained.

Tritium is produced in nuclear reactors at the government’s Savannah River complex near Aiken, S.C., mainly for use in nuclear warheads. Smaller amounts are sold to private companies for use in biological and energy research, as well as in the manufacture of luminous lights, signs and dials.

No U.S. tritium has been produced for more than a year because the Savannah River reactors have been shut down for repairs and management improvements. The sales that resumed Friday will come from stockpiles.