Home · Why is tritium scarce?
Question
Why is tritium scarce?
Tritium decays at 5.5%/yr and has essentially one aging production route. Kronos breeds it.
Why
Because it decays away. Tritium has a ~12-year half-life (5.5%/yr), so stockpiles must be continuously replenished — and there is essentially one aging domestic production route.
01
It decays
5.5% of any tritium inventory is lost every year to radioactive decay.
02
One aging route
Domestic production depends on a single, aging path.
03
Fusion needs it too
Every D–T fusion effort needs tritium to start — a looming industry-wide crunch.
Related questions
More answers.
Why is tritium scarce? +
Tritium decays at about 5.5% per year, so stockpiles must be continuously replenished, and there is essentially one aging domestic production route. Kronos's HYPERION breeder adds a purpose-built source (~1.7 to 4 kg/yr on the blanket lever).
What is tritium used for? +
It boosts the nuclear-weapons stockpile, starts every D–T fusion effort, and powers long-life betavoltaic batteries and self-luminous devices.
How much tritium can Kronos make? +
On the blanket lever, ~1.7 kg/yr at the demonstrated beryllium-multiplied blanket, scaling toward a ~4 kg/yr national-duty target.
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Open by design.
Conceptual design and simulation study; the integrated Kronos machines are not yet built, and certain results are requirement-class. No financial figures are published on this site.