An Investigation into the Potential for the Development of a Tritium Production Industry to service Fusion Power Plants

聚变工业目前的观点是，每个聚变发电厂（FPP）都应该产生自己的氚。实现这一目标的首选方法是培育含有锂的毯子，它包围着聚变等离子体，并使用它产生的中子从锂中产生氚。然而，这种方法对于聚变发电技术的全球部署是有问题的。它生产更复杂的FPP设计，需要可更换的增殖层和复杂的氚处理设施。增殖层不仅增加了FPP设计的复杂性，而且还增加了FPP的潜在危险以及对额外安全、安保和可能的保障问题的需求。由于成本和可操作性的原因，电力公用事业和其他行业将期望FPP尽可能简单，因此氚供应行业的可用性，类似于核裂变发电厂的核燃料制造行业，将具有许多优势。该项目的目的是研究在工业规模上生产氚的可行性，这将需要支持聚变动力的部署，以便FPP不必增殖自己的氚。长期愿景是英国建立一个氚生产行业，可以服务于英国和全球FPP行业的需求。在短期内，人们认识到，STEP，其他英国和国际小型球形托卡马克反应堆和私人聚变事业将需要氚供应的早期。

The current view of the fusion industry is that each fusion power plant (FPP) should breed its own tritium. The preferred method to achieve this is in breeding blankets containing lithium, which surround the fusion plasma and use the neutrons it produces to generate tritium from lithium. However, this approach is problematic for a global deployment of fusion power technologies. It produces more complex FPP designs with the need for replaceable breeder blankets and complex tritium processing facilities. The breeder blankets not only add complexity to the design of the FPP, but they also increase the hazard potential of the FPP and the need for additional safety, security and possible safeguards issues. The electricity utilities and other industries will expect FPPs to be as simple as possible for both cost and operability reasons, hence the availability of a tritium supply industry, similar to the nuclear fuel manufacturing industry in the case of the nuclear fission power plants, will have many advantages. This project would aim to investigate the feasibility of producing tritium on the industrial scale that would be required to support the deployment of fusion power so that FPPs would not have to breed their own tritium. The longer-term vision is for the UK to create a tritium production industry that could service both the UK and global FPP industry need. In the shorter term it is recognised that STEP, other UK and international small spherical Tokamak reactors and private fusion endeavours will need tritium supplies for their early years.