The Defense Department should not have to cannibalize existing nuclear weapons for their tritium, but the next administration faces unspecified ``hard choices,'' Energy Secretary John Herrington said Thursday. And cannibalization of some warheads to build or upgrade others is something ``that we must look at to keep our options open,'' Herrington said in a speech at the National Press Club. But as things now stand, ``I do not anticipate the need'' to resort to such methods. Tritium, used in thermonuclear weapons and as a booster in some plutonium-powered weapons, decays rapidly and must be replenished from time to time in bombs or warheads. Half of any amount of tritium becomes inert helium in 12.6 years. Tritium has been made in three nuclear reactors at the department's Savannah River plant in South Carolina _ reactors that have been closed for safety upgrading since last summer or earlier. Herrington has said it will be spring or summer before the reactors can be restarted, and there have been some estimates that production could not be resumed until the end of the year. An advisory committee has refused to approve the department's restart plans, and Herrington disclosed that he had accepted the panel's recommendation in one principal area of concern. Piping at the three reactors will be subjected to ultrasonic tests for cracks, he said. Asked after his speech how much time those examinations might add to preparations for restarting the reactors, Herrington said: ``I don't know. It depends on what we find.'' The recommendation, he said, ``is reasonable, and I had pretty much concluded myself that we ought to do it.'' In recent weeks, cracks have been discovered on piping of two of the reactors. A headquarters team has been in Savannah River this week assessing the significance of those findings. Herrington has been granted an additional $900 million for nuclear waste cleanup activities in the budget being submitted to Congress next month, but the White House turned him down for $360 million more, ordering him to use unspent departmental funds to bridge the gap. ``We are still working inside the department'' to figure out how that will be done,'' he said. ``The amount of money being given to us is reasonable and a good start,'' he said. ``I do not say that without saying this: There are going to be some hard choices,'' and the Bush administration will have to review Reagan's budget decisions. Herrington has estimated that $110 billion will be necessary to clean up weapons plant waste over the next 40 years, and some other estimates range up to $170 billion. Asked if the press had fallen down in not spotlighting environmental and safety concerns before, Herrington said, ``On the local level, the press has been extremely diligent'' in following congressional developments, hearing testimony and congressional reports for almost four years. But it probably took an unexplained power surge at one of the Savannah River reactors last August to draw national attention, he said. On civilian subjects, Herrington said it was ``an outrage'' that the nation had two completed but unused nuclear power plants in an area vulnerable to electricity brownouts, the Seabrook plant in New Hampshire and the Shoreham plant on New York's Long Island. ``I speak as a citizen concerned about energy independence, as a taxpayer concerned that New York is going to issue tax-free bonds to buy the plant and tear it down. The plants would replace oil-burning plants, help counter the ``greenhouse effect'' global warming that results from fossil fuel use and help reduce emissions of pollutants that cause acid rain, he said. ``I think it's an outrage. I want to see those plants operate. ... I guarantee you, if we don't turn this around we will be importing Japanese reactors.'' The two plants have been unable to win federal approval of emergency evacuation plans because of opposition from state governments _ the Massachusetts government in the case of the New Hampshire plant. But the staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recommended approval of a 25 percent power license for Shoreham, and may grant a testing license to Seabrook in the next several weeks.
