Why Tritium
The rare material driving the future of humanity
Tritium (³H or T) is a rare hydrogen isotope with one proton and two neutrons. It has a half-life of ~12.3 years and is naturally scarce. Tritium is essential for most fusion projects. However, tritium is in short supply and the worldwide stockpile may start to decrease rapidly after 2030 when many experimental fusion reactors are expected to come online.
The problem has been reported by the IAEA, and a Science article on this topic can be found here.
$30M
Market Price per kilogram
Why tritium matters
Tritium is essential for the fusion industry
As the world races toward commercial fusion power, securing a sustainable tritium supply is a challenge. In theory, all DT-fusion powerplants are designed to reproduce tritium by themselves. But the entire industry faces two questions:
What if the TBR (tritium breeding ratio) is smaller than 1?
Theoretically, one tritium atom comes into a fusion reactor, more than one tritium can be produced as by-products. However, blanket technologies for large-scale reactors are immature, and tritium decays or gets lost during the extraction and transportation. The first generation of fusion power plants are unlikely to achieve TBR > 1.
How to shorten the the "doubling time" of fusion power plants?
The "doubling time" refers to the time needed for the initial power plant to produce enough tritium fuel to fill a second reactor's fuel cycle. A doubling time of 2 to 5 years are expected.
We choose to use our compact DD fusion machine to fill the gap and shorten the doubling time.
The Tritium Supply Challenge
Only 25-30kg
exists globally
The worldwide tritium stockpile can be depleted before fusion power plants achieve Tritium Breeding Ratio (TBR) of 1.
$30M
per kilogram
This is current market price for tritium, and the access is limited.
Strained supply chain
Current supply is 2 kg/year by CANDU reactors, but half of which will be decommissioned this decade. TPBAR faces constraints in regulation and neutronics
Surging demand
More than 10 kg/year tritium will be needed in the early 2030s when major research reactors come online.