, -19- vy See SS a substantially higher g/T level than the present standard production; and the acceptance of this level win make it possible to produce the . high quality material in addition without boo much trolible, It wil not be necessary to undettake new| process plant. cotslailctdon beyond that now planned, The requirement for high quality material will not be met in 1955, and probably not in 1956, but will be in 1957. - There was some consideration of whether still higher quality plutonium would be needed, as suggested in Dr. Bradbury's letter, Dr. Mark summarized the situation by saying that material of better than - 200 g/T quality was not needed for present designs, but that its lack would place a limitation on future design possibilities, . Dr. Pittman reviewed the U-233 situation, According to a recent - study, the cost of U-233 would be comperable to that of 20 n/g-sec plutonium, It was planned to commence some production by loading an enriched Savannah River reactor with thorium next year. There is_ some indication that the supply of thorium metal wil‘be’ a‘bottleneck. For a separation plant,3a Savannah River Purex plant will probably be convert . to the Thorex process, Upgrading plutonium by isotope separation did not appear economicall Plutonium advantageous, under any conditions, in comparison to U-233. (Dr. Pittman referred the Committee to an Operations Analysis report by Mr. Herron, which compared low g/T, isotope separation, and ‘U-233. However, the report was not available during the meeting.) ~ DOE ARCHIys vt Kt " The lithium-6 production plans had not been altered, and the plan “te construct a second plant was going along. The capacity for converting LiOH to LID might be a bottleneck. a 142