Helium-3 Inventory Management
Because helium-3 arrives slowly by decay, the supply is managed as an inventory — a reserve built ahead of demand rather than produced on demand.
A reserve, not a tap
Helium-3 cannot be produced faster by turning a dial: it appears at the fixed rate set by tritium's 12.32-year half-life. That makes helium-3 supply an inventory-management problem. The breeder builds a tritium store, a chosen fraction is allowed to decay, and the resulting helium-3 is accumulated as a reserve. Burners draw down that reserve. The system is planned around stock and flow, not instantaneous production.
The levers
Three levers set the helium-3 reserve. First, how many breeders run and at what tritium breeding ratio (the lever spans 1.1, 1.5, and 1.8). Second, what fraction of bred tritium is held for decay versus sold or used directly as tritium. Third, the timing — because decay is passive, starting the breeder early (construction from Q2 2027) means a reserve exists before the first test burner around 2032.
- Supply rate is fixed by half-life — plan by stock and flow
- Reserve is built ahead of demand, during the breeder-first period
- Tritium-held vs helium-3-decayed split is an inventory decision
- Breeding-ratio lever (1.1 / 1.5 / 1.8) scales the source rate
Managed this way, the slowness of decay becomes a strength: the supply is predictable years in advance and cannot be disrupted by a single event, because most of the future helium-3 already exists as tritium in store.