The fuel supply quandary of fusion power reactors.

Concern about adequate tritium resources to start up deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion reactors in the near term is misplaced: Proposed demonstration reactors and pilot plants will not realistically be buildable for a great many decades. More disturbing, tritium fuel self-sufficiency of eventual DT reactors may be unattainable, because it is unlikely that tritium-breeding blankets can completely replenish burned-up fuel as well as unburned tritium that is lost in numerous reactor subsystems. The concept of doubling time is unworkable. The only viable fuel solution for sustained operation demands deuterium-based reactors where the tritium is concurrently generated and burned up in the fusioning plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]