Hyperion Breeding Blanket
The breeding blanket wraps the plasma to capture fusion neutrons, breed tritium in lithium, and carry away the fusion heat.
Where the breeder breeds
The breeding blanket is the reason Hyperion is called a breeder. It is the thick lithium-bearing shell surrounding the plasma, and it does three jobs at once: it captures the 14.1 MeV neutrons from deuterium-tritium fusion, it uses those neutrons to breed new tritium from lithium, and it turns the neutron energy into heat.
The breeding reactions
A fusion neutron striking lithium-6 produces tritium plus helium; striking lithium-7 it can also produce tritium plus a spare neutron. Deuterium-tritium fusion consumes one tritium per reaction, so to keep running the blanket must breed more than one new tritium per fusion. The Hyperion design targets a tritium breeding ratio of 1.8, meaning 1.8 tritons bred per triton burned.
Why the margin
- Some bred tritium is lost to decay and processing before it can be reused.
- Neutrons are absorbed by structure and coolant instead of lithium.
- A ratio above one is needed just to break even; a comfortable margin covers the losses and can start up other units.
In the model
The blanket is the dominant shell in the poloidal cutaway. It is selectable as a whole and, for signed-in users, as modules. Its thickness callout drives the neutronics, so the model ties the visible geometry directly to the breeding-ratio result. Blanket modules are designed to be removed radially through vessel ports for maintenance, which the exploded view shows.
Heat and tritium extraction
The blanket's heat is carried to the balance of plant, and its bred tritium is sent to the tritium plant. See the tritium plant interface and the neutron shield behind the blanket.