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Thanks. Here's what the Agency's report says about weapons-grade vs. weapons-usable (reformatted).

Weapons-usable material is defined as

uranium enriched to 20 percent or greater in the uranium-235 or uranium-233 isotopes (highly enriched uranium—HEU) and any plutonium containing less than 80 percent of the isotope plutonium-238.

Weapons-grade material is typically defined as

uranium enriched to greater than 90 percent uranium-235 or uranium-233, or plutonium-239 containing less than 6 percent plutonium-240.

There are various isotopes that cannot themselves initiate chain reactions, but that can be used to boost or moderate an ongoing explosion. Tritium and reactor-grade enriched uranium, for example, both have weapon uses, but neither is useful by itself for creating a nuclear weapon.

Now that you've mentioned Tritium, ever wonder what else is in Tennessee besides Algore's legacy, organized crime, a dead license examiner (Katherine Smith), and a dead scientist who committed suicide by falling over a 5ft retaining wall on a bridge?

Tennessee Reactor to Make Tritium: (Excerpt)

Tennessee Reactor to Make Tritium
By Rachel Zoll
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, December 22, 1998; 6:49 p.m. EST
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- For the first time in U.S. history, the government is about to breach the long-standing wall separating civilian uses of nuclear power from military ones.
The Energy Department announced Tuesday that it is awarding a billion-dollar contract to the Tennessee Valley Authority to produce tritium at a TVA nuclear reactor near Knoxville that generates electricity for homes and businesses in the Southeast.
Tritium is an isotope that enhances the explosive force of nuclear warheads
The decision marks the first time in the nation's history that a civilian nuclear plant will be used to produce weapons material.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said that awarding the contract to the Watts Bar nuclear plant will be cost-efficient while providing needed tritium. TVA's Sequoyah nuclear plant outside Chattanooga will serve as a backup.

Just something to ponder now and then...