The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) completed a record of 13 tritium extractions between fiscal 2025 and 2026, the agency said Jan. 23.
This extraction amount was completed in nine months, the agency’s press release said. The previous record was eight extractions in 12 months between fiscal 2022 and 2023.
“This record achievement in tritium extractions demonstrates what the Nuclear Security Enterprise can achieve when we operate with urgency and focus,” NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams said in the agency press release. “The successful delivery of tritium is essential to meeting the Department of War’s deterrent requirements and delivering President Trump’s peace through strength agenda.”
Tritium increases the efficiency of thermonuclear weapons. Savannah River Tritium Enterprises, managed and operated by prime contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions and consisting of Savannah River Site personnel, harvests the radioactive hydrogen isotope from tritium-producing burnable absorber rods irradiated in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 1 nuclear reactor.
Personnel pack that tritium into new reservoirs, which are installed in nuclear weapons at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and NNSA delivers the tritium reservoirs to the military once inspected.
Tritium must be replenished in nuclear warheads continually given its 12.3 year half-life.