Tritium Inventory Management
Every gram of tritium is measured, tracked, and accounted for, a requirement for both foundry operation and the licensing basis.
Accounting for the product
Tritium is both the breeder's product and a regulated radioactive material, so it must be measured and tracked continuously. Inventory management covers how much tritium exists, where it is in the plant, and how it moves, from breeding in the blanket to storage as product.
Why it is doubly important
- Product: the tritium class output near 4 kg/yr must be quantified to be sold
- Regulation: the byproduct-material safety case requires demonstrated accountancy
- Safety: containment depends on knowing inventory and detecting loss
- Fuel cycle: the plasma is refueled from recovered tritium, so tracking closes the loop
How it is done
Inventory is measured across the plant, recovery, purification, storage, and fueling, so that the total is known and reconciled. Discrepancies signal either measurement error or loss, both of which matter. This accountancy is part of the fuel-loop gate G3, where the closed and accounted loop is the pass criterion.
Helium-3 too
Because tritium decays to helium-3, inventory management also tracks the helium-3 coproduct near 1.97 kg/yr. The two are accounted together as products of the same fuel cycle.
Tritium inventory management is a design and procedural requirement for a machine not yet built. Demonstrating it on hardware, at first tritium, is inseparable from proving the foundry function itself.