Constructing the Tritium “Requirement” for Nuclear Weapons

This article explores how technical “requirements” in nuclear weapons policy are constructed, politicized and mobilized to serve institutional interests, focusing on the US government’s 2015 decision to increase the tritium requirement for its nuclear arsenal. Assumed to be a response to technical and strategic needs, the requirement is better understood as a vehicle for reviving a troubled uranium enrichment program – the AC100 centrifuge. The US Energy Department leveraged the opaque and authoritative language of technical necessity to secure funding for the centrifuge and protect institutional prerogatives. This case illustrates how nuclear policy is shaped by bureaucratic and economic interests and the politics of technical expertise. It challenges the assumption that nuclear force structure is determined primarily by security needs. Instead, it argues that national security “requirements” are often contingent, constructed and subject to institutional manipulation.