The New Energy Times Fusion Fuel Reporting

Nuclear Fusion: Out of Gas

By Steven B. Krivit
Copyright New Energy Times

Introduction

For at least 50 years, fusion scientists have been telling the public that the fuel for nuclear fusion is “abundant, virtually inexhaustible, and equally accessible to everyone, everywhere.” They have been saying that there is enough fuel in ocean water to provide power for humanity for billions of years.

New Energy Times published a preliminary analysis on the tritium fuel issues on July 1, 2021, in slide numbers 67 through 83 of this presentation. We published the first comprehensive analysis on the tritium fuel issues on Oct. 10, 2021, and the first comprehensive analysis on the lithium-6 fuel issues on Jan. 8, 2022. Wired magazine was the first to do a follow-up story, Science magazine was the second.

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)

Tritium does not exist in nature as a resource. Anywhere.
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.
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.
After 2060, those reactors will have reached the end of their lifecycle, and Canada does not plan to replace them.
If ITER is built and runs deuterium-tritium fusion experiments, ITER will rapidly consume almost the entire remaining worldwide inventory of tritium.
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)

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.
In order to breed a sufficient rate of tritium from lithium, a fusion reactor must be built with a full breeding blanket.
That reactor must be built and commissioned before the world’s tritium inventory goes to zero. Otherwise, there will be no “startup tritium.”
In nature, there are two stable forms of lithium: lithium-6 and lithium-7. Most of it (92%) is lithium-7.
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.
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.
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.

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)
“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)

Introduction

Fusion Fuel Basics

Tritium Facts (Scientific references)

Lithium Facts (Scientific references)

Military Production of Enriched Lithium-6

Fuel Response From the Head of European Fusion Program

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

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

New Energy Times Articles on the Tritium Issues

New Energy Times Articles on the Lithium Issues

New Energy Times Articles on Fusion Fuel Issues

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

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