The New Energy Times Fusion Fuel Reporting

Our Fusion Fuel Investigation

• For at least 50 years, fusion scientists had been telling the public that the fuel for nuclear fusion is “abundant, virtually inexhaustible, and equally accessible to everyone, everywhere.”
• On Oct. 10, 2021, New Energy Times was the first to report that the tritium required to run nuclear fusion reactors does not exist in nature as a natural resource. Wired magazine was the first mainstream news media organization to publish a follow-up story; Science magazine was the second.
• For most of the least 50 years, fusion scientists had been telling the public that they would be able to breed tritium, using a fission reaction with lithium-6.
• On Jan. 8, 2022, New Energy Times was the first to report that lithium-6 does not exist in nature as a natural resource: It must be separated from lithium-7.
• We also informed the public that no environmentally acceptable and legal method exists to separate industrial quantities of lithium-6 from lithium-7. The ITER Organization subsequently withdrew its false fuel claims. (See Fusion Fuel page)
• On Jan. 21, 2022, we also informed President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that the fuel for nuclear fusion reactors does not exist in nature as a natural resource. The lobbyist for the fusion “industry” did not dispute our research. Instead, he assured the council that scientists will solve the fuel problems in the future.

Our Power/Energy Investigation

• On Dec. 13, 2016, New Energy Times was the first to report that the ITER Organization had been making false claims about the projected reactor power gain. We informed the public that this publicly funded multibillion-dollar reactor would never deliver as promised; producing a thermal output of 500 megawatts from only 50 megawatts of input. Its promoters neglected to disclose the 440 megawatts of electricity the reactor will require.
• On Nov. 7, 2017, we reported that the ITER Organization had made some corrections to its false-power claims. Other international science, government, and industry organizations followed with their own corrections.
• On Nov. 15, 2022, we reported that the ITER Organization had begun withdrawing its final set of false reactor net-energy claims. The ITER Organization was the last of the international organizations to do so.
• As of December 2024, even though our investigation has been cited in several books, no mainstream news media organizations have informed their readers or viewers of the false claims, which those news organizations had unknowingly published for years.

Fusion Fuel Basics

Most fusion reactors require a 50/50 mixture of two hydrogen isotopes: deuterium and tritium. Deuterium exists in seawater. Yes, it is abundant. Everywhere. Ordinary industrial processes can separate deuterium from the normal hydrogen that composes most water. Tritium, on the other hand, does not exist in nature as a resource. Scientists hope to breed, or make, tritium from enriched lithium.

Tritium Facts  (Scientific references)

1. Tritium does not exist in nature as a resource. Anywhere.
2. In the U.S., tritium is produced by the Tennessee Valley Authority on behalf of the U.S. government, for nuclear weapons. It does not sell the tritium commercially.
3. The world’s commercial tritium is produced from a small fleet of aging heavy-water nuclear fission reactors, most are in Canada. It costs about $30,000 per gram.
4. After 2060, those reactors will have reached the end of their lifecycle, and Canada does not plan to replace them.
5. If ITER is built and runs deuterium-tritium fusion experiments, ITER will rapidly consume almost the entire remaining worldwide inventory of tritium.
6. Operating a fusion reactor on just deuterium, to produce tritium, is theoretically possible. However, it will cost about $2 billion per kilogram of tritium.

Some fusion scientists have known about many of these problems for decades. However, some of these issues have reached the scientific literature only in the last five years. For at least 50 years, fusion scientists have planned to make, or breed, tritium from lithium. A fusion reactor would need to have a blanket completely covering the inner wall of the reactor for the breeding process to work. ITER will have no such blanket. Instead, ITER will have four-to-six tritium breeding modules (TBMs), which will cover only 1 percent of the inner-wall surface of ITER.

Lithium Facts (Scientific references)

1. Lithium is not a fuel for deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion reactors. It is a material that may be used to make the tritium fuel component.
2. In order to breed a sufficient rate of tritium from lithium, a fusion reactor must be built with a full breeding blanket.
3. That reactor must be built and commissioned before the world’s tritium inventory goes to zero. Otherwise, there will be no “startup tritium.”
4. In nature, there are two stable forms of lithium: lithium-6 and lithium-7. Most of it (92%) is lithium-7.
5. Both isotopes can react with neutrons to produce tritium. The lithium-7 interaction, however, has a much lower probability of occurring. Therefore, the tritium yield will be insufficient. A fusion reactor would soon run out of tritium.
6. Thus, the percentage of Li-6 has to be increased to be used for breeding in a reactor. In other words, the lithium has to be enriched.
7. A legal, environmentally safe method to enrich lithium-6 does not exist in the U.S.

Even if a viable lithium-6 enrichment method existed, even if a processing plant were built, there’s one final, crucial problem. According to tritium breeding experts, there is no known physics or technology that can breed tritium fast enough in a fusion reactor. Again, a fusion reactor would soon run out of tritium.

Military Production of Enriched Lithium-6

A viable, environmentally friendly lithium-6 enrichment process could be invented, and an industrial-scale processing plant could be built. China, Russia, and North Korea have operating lithium-6 processing plants. Enriched lithium-6 is used for nuclear weapons. These nations use the COLEX process that, in the U.S., was banned in the 1960s because of its toxicity. The U.S. military does not have an active lithium-6 processing plant and relies on recycling of old lithium from dismantled warheads.

Fuel Response From the Head of European Fusion Program

If there is one person who needs to know where the enriched lithium-6 for fusion reactors will come from, it is Tony Donné, the program manager for EUROfusion. His organization is responsible for designing the European successor to ITER, called the EU DEMO reactor. This reactor is intended, and in fact required, to have a full tritium breeding blanket. This reactor must breed sufficient rates of tritium, or it will fail.

In January 2022, I discussed the lithium issues with Donné and asked him about his planned source for the tons of enriched lithium needed for the EU DEMO reactor. He didn’t have any. He confirmed that the enrichment technology does not exist. He hopes that a solution will appear in the next few decades.

“We have enough time until the fusion reactors are rolled out to develop the technology and set up plants to enrich the lithium,” Donné wrote.

Fuel Response From the Head of the U.S. Fusion Industry Association

In January 2022, I saw that Andrew Holland, the chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C.-based fusion advocacy group Fusion Industry Association, was going to give a presentation to President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). I requested and was granted an opportunity to respond during the meeting.

I explained to President Biden’s advisers that the fuel for fusion does not exist. Some of them seem to appreciate and welcome what I had to share. PCAST co-chair Maria Zuber, the vice president for research at MIT and an avid promoter of CFS, was not one of them.

After the meeting, Holland submitted a written comment to the Council in response to my presentation. He did not refute a single technical point I had made. Instead, with no supportive evidence, he wrote, “The U.S. will have stable, reliable fuel sources for fusion energy.”

Fuel Response From the Editor of Tritium: Fuel of Fusion Reactors

I wondered, could it really be this bad? Could the fusion science community have so deeply buried or ignored such a fundamental deal breaker? In June 2022, I reached out to Professor Tanabe Tetsuo, the editor of the Springer book Tritium: Fuel of Fusion Reactors. After some back-and-forth with Tetsuo, he concurred with my analysis about the critical issues about lithium enrichment for fusion reactor fuel.

New Energy Times Articles and Videos on the Tritium and Lithium Fuel Issues

The Tritium Fusion Fuel Discrepancy: The Misleading Claims (Oct. 10, 2021)
The Tritium Fusion Fuel Discrepancy: The Scientific Facts (Oct. 10, 2021)
Lithium, Lithium, Everywhere, and None to Use for Fusion Reactors (Jan. 8, 2022)
The Fuel for Nuclear Fusion Doesn’t Exist (Jan. 12, 2022)
VIDEO: Krivit Explains Fuel Issues to the President Biden’s Council (PCAST) (Jan. 21, 2022)
The Missing Miracles of Fusion Fuel (June 21, 2022)
The Failure to Plan for Fusion Fuel (June 21, 2022)
VIDEO: False Foundations for Nuclear Fusion (June 21, 2022)
Without Fuel, the Fusion Game Is Over (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) (July 18, 2022)

U.S. Department of Energy Web Page on Fusion Fuel

DOE Explains DT Fusion Reactor Fuel (Current Page)
DOE Explains DT Fusion Reactor Fuel (Retrieved June 20, 2022)
Krivit Explains DT Fusion Reactor Fuel to DOE  (Jan. 26, 2022)

 

Follow-Up Publications to the New Energy Times Fusion Fuel Reporting

“Dream of unlimited, clean nuclear fusion energy within reach,” Phys.org’s copy of European Commission’s Horizon magazine article (June 28, 2022)
“Dream of unlimited, clean nuclear fusion energy within reach,” European Commission’s Horizon magazine, Gareth Willmer (June 27, 2022)
“A Shortage Of Tritium Fuel May Leave Fusion Energy At Starting Gate,” Michigan Tech News (June 25, 2022)
“Out of Gas,” Science, Daniel Clery (June 23, 2022)
“Idaho National Lab studies fusion safety, tritium supply chain,” CNBC, Catherine Clifford (May 28, 2022)
“Nuclear Fusion Is Already Facing a Fuel Crisis,” Wired, Amit Katwala (May 20, 2022)