Why Kronos Needs No Breeding Blanket

D–T reactors need a lithium breeding blanket that wears out and limits availability. Kronos's D–³He fuel removes that whole subsystem.

D–T requirement

A lithium blanket to breed tritium

Blanket problem

Wears out; ~20–25 changeouts over life

Availability penalty

33–42% for D–T (0.71–0.75 factor)

Kronos

No breeding blanket; first wall lasts 30 full-power-years

A deuterium–tritium reactor cannot buy enough tritium to run — it must breed its own, by surrounding the plasma with a lithium breeding blanket that neutrons convert into tritium. That blanket is a massive, neutron-battered subsystem that degrades and must be replaced perhaps 20–25 times over a plant's life, each changeout meaning downtime. The resulting availability penalty is 33–42%.

Because Kronos MetroVolt burns D–³He and breeds its own helium-3 in the plasma, it needs no breeding blanket at all. The low-neutron flux means the first wall lasts the full 30 full-power-years (30 dpa against a 36-dpa qualification), so the plant structurally avoids the blanket-changeout downtime that drags on D–T economics — a direct contributor to its LCOE advantage (analysis S81).