15 What fuels can a fusion reactor burn?
Description
This article is from the Fusion FAQ, by Robert F. Heeter heeter1@llnl.gov with numerous contributions by others.
15 What fuels can a fusion reactor burn?
The different fusion reactions were discussed in Section 1. It is
expected that early fusion reactors will burn deuterium and tritium
as their fuels; the neutrons produced in the D-T reaction will be
reacted with lithium in a "blanket" around the reactor, thus
"breeding" more tritium. More advanced fuels such as D-D, D-He3,
and p-B11 will require better confinement and higher temperatures,
and will probably not be used right away.
The D-D reaction has the most abundant fuel, followed by D-T with Li.
Details on fuel resources are given below in part B on environmental
characteristics.
Unless otherwise noted, the discussion below will assume the D-T
fuel cycle.
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