Tritium Opportunities and Technical Roadmap for Fusion Developments Worldwide – CNL and UKAEA view
Commercial generation of electricity via fusion technology remains one of the promising alternatives to help meet the challenging targets to decarbonize the global energy system. Fusion technology can play a significant role as part of the long-term switch from carbon-based fuels to electricity, due to superior energy output per energy generation area, usage of abundant fuel elements that can be made available without environmental degradation, and relatively benign activation products that avoid transuranic waste. Many countries have their own fusion R&D programs and large research efforts are being undertaken in multi-country collaborative efforts such as ITER. Recently, various small company start-ups have been successful in initiating their development programs, funded by government grants and private investments. While fusion reactors have many different designs, many share common challenges, especially in the area of the deuterium-tritium fuel cycle and associated auxiliary systems. The development of many of the new fusion designs remains dependent on the availability of comprehensive deuterium-tritium expertise. However, the fusion technology developers, in most cases, are having to focus on the physics and mechanical aspects of their technologies due to their complexities. As a result, many of these developers are keen to acquire their tritium management needs through external contracts instead of establishing their own in-house capabilities. As world-leading experts in deuterium-tritium technology, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA), are best positioned to support such needs of the fusion industry. In addition, the technology developers would also benefit from the understanding of regulatory requirements related to tritium management that CNL and UKAEA can offer. This paper broadly explores the fusion market worldwide, identifies opportunities where tritium expertise is key to the development of technology, and presents a view of how CNL and UKAEA are addressing those opportunities for the various fusion developers, ranging from small company start-ups to large multi-country efforts. The paper presents a preliminary holistic view of a technology roadmap and necessary capabilities to address the upcoming challenges.