Abstract
For any energy sources, fuel is a concern. In a DT fusion reactor, deuterium (D) and tritium (T) are fuels. Since hydrogen in natural water contains 0.016 % D, we can extract it from the water mostly by means of electrolysis. T, a radioactive hydrogen isotope decaying to 3He by emission of a β-electron and an antineutrino (ύ) with a half-life of 12.323 year, is generated by cosmic rays and also by nuclear reactions (atomic bombs and nuclear reactors) after the Second World War. Because of its short lifetime, natural abundance of T is very small. Therefore T, as a fuel of the D-T fusion, must be artificially produced. Although handling and processing of hydrogen is well established in industrial scales, owing to its radioactivity , special care is required for safety in handling T. In this chapter, characteristics of T as a radio isotope of hydrogen are introduced, focusing important properties of T as the fuel of a fusion reactor. Particular focuses are given to handling of large amount of radioactive T, behavior of T in burning plasma , and T breeding in blanket to attain fuel self-sufficiency, all of which we have never experienced.
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Tanabe, T. (2017). Characteristics of Tritium. In: Tanabe, T. (eds) Tritium: Fuel of Fusion Reactors . Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56460-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56460-7_2
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