Helium-3 Yield from Hyperion

At its design point the breeder yields helium-3 in the ~1.97 kg/yr class as bred tritium decays, alongside its ~4 kg/yr-class tritium output.

The design-point numbers

Hyperion's frozen design point pairs a tritium output in the ~4 kg/yr class with a helium-3 output in the ~1.97 kg/yr class. These are not two independent products so much as one material seen at two points in time: tritium is what the breeder makes, and helium-3 is what a portion of that tritium becomes as it decays on its 12.32-year clock.

How to read the figures

These are per-unit, design-point figures for a single breeder at its reference operating condition. They scale with the number of breeders in the fleet and with the tritium breeding ratio chosen (the 1.1 / 1.5 / 1.8 lever). They are simulation and design outputs for a machine not yet built: construction begins Q2 2027 and first-of-a-kind first tritium is expected around 2030. No hardware net-gain result is claimed ahead of that milestone.

• Tritium: ~4 kg/yr class per unit at the design point
• Helium-3: ~1.97 kg/yr class per unit as tritium decays
• Also produces 14 MeV neutrons as a third product
• Design/simulation figures; first tritium ~2030, not yet built

For fleet planning the helium-3 figure is the one that governs how many burners a given number of breeders can feed. It is the throughput of the fuel foundry.