Tennessee Valley Authority ratepayers may have subsidized millions of dollars in tritium production costs for the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal, according Anne Paine.
An audit of the program in which TVA’s Watts Bar nuclear power plant makes bomb-triggering material for the U.S. Department of Energy turned up a major lack of data and other shortcomings that leave questions about who is paying. That could include whether the nation’s taxpayers are subsidizing electricity production for ratepayers.
In 2003, TVA’s Watts Bar became the first and only commercial reactor in this country that is used for electricity generation and also provides radioactive tritium for weapons. A summary of the audit by TVA’s Office of Inspector General included statements that the power producer had failed to address $9 million in “under-recovered overhead” that an earlier audit had found. The rates negotiated with DOE didn’t accurately reflect the anticipated costs of the program.
“We were unable to determine if tritium costs were accurately identified and invoiced or if any negative impacts on plant operation from tritium were reimbursed by DOE due to inadequate documentation,” the Inspector General office said in the summary released in May.
TVA nuclear power division officials say the issues occurred with the startup of the complex and unique program and also a changeover of accounting systems.
“If there were cases where TVA customers may have been subsidizing the program, there’ll be an effort to recover that money,” said Ray Golden, TVA spokesman. “In cases where we overcharged the Department of Energy, there’ll be a trueing up of that as well.”