At production scale the burners need helium-3 at a level many times current world supply. That demand is not a hidden footnote — it is the enabling condition of the burner line, and the reason the burners are sequenced after the breeder that makes their fuel.
Helium-3 demand scales with fusion power and therefore with machine length: a longer housing burns more fuel. At production scale the requirement is many times today's world supply for either housing, which is why the fuel condition, not the plasma physics, sets the delivery order of the product line.
Publishing that the demand exceeds current supply — rather than assuming the fuel — is what makes the programme's sequencing honest. The burners cannot run at production scale on today's helium-3, and the record says so, which is exactly why they are the later products in the family.
| Helium-3 demand | many times current world supply |
| Scales with | fusion power / machine length |
| Status | stated fuel constraint (enabling condition) |
| Consequence | burners sequenced after the breeder |
| Specific card figures | unresolved; omitted pending reconciliation |