mfb- t1_j19c9vw wrote on December 22, 2022 at 5:00 PM

Reply to comment by Game_Minds in How do fusion scientists expect to produce enough Tritium to sustain D-T fusion (see text)? by DanTheTerrible

Natural lithium is ~95% Li-7 already. If you do isotope separation then you want more Li-6 to produce tritium from the lower-energy neutrons that the Li-7 reaction left behind. Both breeding reactions destroy the lithium and leave behind helium and tritium.

Luckily 6 vs. 7 is a pretty large mass ratio (for uranium it's 235 vs. 238) and lithium is neither radioactive nor too toxic (although mercury is), so enrichment is much easier.

Game_Minds t1_j19g1u2 wrote on December 22, 2022 at 5:24 PM

Aha! I knew there was some trick. It's that it should be relatively easy to just take raw lithium or even possibly recycle lithium batteries and cheaply achieve the isotope ratios you want for tritium breeding (but the byproduct of the breeding process isnt leftover lithium). Thanks!