Inventory and Decay Management

Managing a mixed inventory of decaying and stable isotopes means tracking each one's physics so the right quantity is available when needed.

Different isotopes, different clocks

A co-production platform holds isotopes on different clocks. Tritium decays at ~5.5%/yr; helium-3 is stable but scarce; the neutron output is not stored at all but delivered as a service. Inventory management must respect each behavior, planning make-up for what decays and allocation for what does not.

A coupled ledger

Because helium-3 is the daughter of tritium, the two ledgers are coupled: tritium lost to decay becomes helium-3 gained. Sound management uses this relationship, treating recovered helium-3 as reclaimed value from an unavoidable tritium loss rather than as an independent windfall.

• Track decay for tritium; plan continuous make-up.
• Track allocation for helium-3; plan recovery and use.
• Recognize helium-3 as reclaimed tritium-decay value.
• Schedule neutron services separately from stored isotopes.

Why disciplined management pays

Avoid over-holding

A recurring lesson across these isotopes is to avoid over-holding tritium, since inventory kept beyond need simply decays. Good management keeps enough on hand to meet demand and buffer disruption, harvests the resulting helium-3 as value, and relies on a steady production rate rather than a large, leaking stockpile. The neutron output, delivered as a service, is scheduled separately from the stored isotopes. Coordinating these different behaviors — a decaying store, a stable but scarce product, and an on-demand service — is what disciplined inventory management on a co-production platform requires.

Good inventory discipline keeps the right amount of each output available without over-holding tritium that would only decay. For the breeder, these management rules are stated as design and operational criteria; measured inventory behavior is a FOAK-era result reported honestly.