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The Fuel Cycle — Tritium & Helium-3

Sequencing the Fuel: A Breeder Decade Feeds the Demonstrator

The programme's order is a fuel-supply argument — make the fuel first, burn it later.

The family is sequenced by fuel: Hyperion runs first and produces helium-3 for a decade, and that accumulated supply fuels the burner demonstrator that follows. The order of the products is the fuel cycle expressed as a schedule.

The science

Hyperion produces about 4 kg/yr of net tritium — roughly twice the entire world commercial tritium flow, making it the largest producer worldwide — and that surplus ripens into helium-3 by decay at about 2 kg/yr. That decay stream fuels a ~10 MWe self-fuelled Aegis demonstrator; a commercial unit's 28-54 kg/yr need waits on external supply. The sequence is dictated by the time it takes to accumulate the scarce fuel.

Why it matters

Sequencing this way turns the burners' fuel dependency from an open-ended hope into a supply-limited schedule. The demonstrator's size is set by available fuel, and the breeder's decade of production is what makes any burner build possible at all.

The numbers

FirstHyperion (breeder), ~4 kg/yr net T = 2x world flow
Duration~decade of production
Then~10 MWe self-fuelled Aegis demonstrator
Fuel~2 kg/yr breeder decay He-3
Commercial28-54 kg/yr, external supply gated
Straight answersThe sequencing is a fuel-supply strategy, not a dated commitment; the current plan is to begin breeder construction in Q2 2027, the demonstrator is sized to available fuel, and the specific timeline lives on revisable surfaces, never in the frozen physics record.
Kronos is the fusion company that shows its work. Every figure here traces to the openly deposited Kronos simulation programme and design-point records (CC BY 4.0). Read the series, run the code, check us. — All whitepapers
Conceptual design and simulation study; no machine has been built. Quantitative values are simulation-derived and carry the feasibility gates named in the text; superseded values are kept in the record with era labels. This document is informational and is not an offer of securities. © 2026 Kronos Fusion Energy, Inc. · Los Angeles, California.
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