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Originally Posted by The Supreme Canuck
Wait, wait. I was asking if the tritium created in fusion reactors is used to further fusion. I may have muddled the question with that awful breeder reactor analogy. Sorry.  ops: |
That and spelling further "furter", I thought you might have meant father in the breeder reactor.
But no, the tritium is not used to further fusion. The tritium is fused with deuturium and out pops a helium atom (he4), a free neutron (bad = radiation) and some energy (17.6 MeV).
To "make" the tritum, you irradiate lithium-6 with slow neutrons and out pops helium, tritum and 4.8 MeV. You can also use the more common Lithium-7 and bombard it with fast neutrons, that gives you helium, tritium and a slow electron.
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Hmm, with all the information I keep having to look up on nuclear fusion and releated topics for all my posts, maybe I should consider switching my major over to nuclear physics. Maybe then I'll get around to graduating
