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[cdn-nucl-l] US DOE Tritium facility beats schedule
Posted in the Augusta Chronicle on April 17, 2003 and at:
http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/041803/met_237-6546.000.shtml
Adam
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Tritium facility beats schedule
Web posted Thursday, April 17, 2003
By Eric Williamson | Staff Writer
AIKEN - Construction on a Savannah River Site plant formerly mired in cost
overruns and delays is now ahead of its revised schedule, according to one
of the Department of Energy's project managers.
Mike Hickman, the federal project manager for the Tritium Extraction
Facility, said Thursday that the building is more than half complete.
"We're still within our cost baseline," he said.
The facility will form a partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority to
create tritium, a radioactive hydrogen essential to nuclear weapons
performance.
SRS now recycles tritium to maintain warheads.
In January, officials announced the new budget and time frame for completion
of the SRS plant.
The project had been $100 million over budget and 17 months behind schedule.
Now officials believe they are about 10 months ahead of the revised goal of
tritium production by July 2007.
The project is a partnership with Westinghouse Savannah River Co, which runs
most of SRS' daily operations for the government, and Bechtel Savannah River
and its subcontractors.
Reach Eric Williamson at (803) 279-6895 or
eric.williamson@augustachronicle.com.
--From the Friday, April 18, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle