US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved

Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by rerdavies on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @11:14PM (#33979937)

Tritium has a half-life of 12 years so there is no deep pool of tritium upon which to draw. The primary source of tritium on earth is cosmic-ray interactions in the upper atmosphere that produces 7.5Kg of tritium a year worldwide.[1]

Isn't that going to cause a serious problem if it requires 323Kg/yr of tritium just to power New York City?

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sci...

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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by wizofaus on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @11:21PM (#33979967)

Apparently no, because it can be made by the fusion process itself, via contact with lithium, and there's enough proven reserves of the latter to supply us for 100s of years.

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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by moloch-hai on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @11:45PM (#33980091)

Nobody knows how to get tritium at PPB concentration from the thousand tons of radioactive molten FLiBe it is dissolved in. You have to process all of it every day because you need that tritium for fuel tomorrow.

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