The accuracy of an interpolation approach to molecular potential energy surfaces for quantum reactive scattering is demonstrated by comparison of the quantum reaction probability for a model surface and its interpolated approximation. Effective convergence of an ab initio surface with the size of the interpolation data set is demonstrated for the reaction BeH+H-2 --> BeH2+H. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)01346-X].