Quote:
Originally Posted by ernie
Somehow I'd have to believe that rather than mine the moon China would simply breed tritium from neutron activation of Li-6. Tritium then decays to He-3 (~12 year half life) which is how the current world stock was created (inventory is decreasing because no tritium is being made).
Sure tritium is used in nuclear weapons (hence the drop in production) but somehow I don't think that matters too much to China. Hell the US is going to restart tritium production in the near future and so the He-3 inventory will begin to increase again.
And honestly, if fusion technology actually gets developed to a level where it is useful there are easier fuel stocks that wouldn't require moon mining. You'd simply use the high energy neutron radiation produced in fusion to breed the tritium (decay to He-3) to provide the fuel for the plant. The Tokamak will do something similar. But as it always is the Tokamak is 20 years in the future....though at least they;ve actually poured the foundation pads now.
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I dropped Chemistry in High School. It felt good man.