The Jet Tokamak in the UK operated for 5 solid seconds and proves nuclear Fusion is possible. And, for the 50th straight year, we are promised that commercial Fusion devices will be just 15 years off. Translate - keep the research money flowing out way.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/09/uk/nuclear-fusion-climate-energy-scn-intl/index.html

 

One thing I've been wondering - how much energy does it take to refine the Deuterium and Tritium?

 

One thing I've been wondering - how much energy does it take to refine the Deuterium and Tritium?

Much easier to make tritium than refine it. Plenty of nuclear reactors around the world storing tritium for the 10-half-lives (10x12 years = 120 years) until it can be released into the environment. Deuterium, toss up but much easier to electrolyze the water and use diffusion rate difference and vapor swing absorption techniques to isolate because H2=molecular weight of 2 and DH=3 and D2=4. So, big difference. Rather than trying to separate H2O (18) from DHO (19) from D2O (20 molecular weight).

Interestingly, even though deuterium is non-radioactive, ingesting food or water containing molecules where hydrogen is replaced with deuterium can kill you because chemical reactions are slower (carbon - hydrogen bonds vibrate at a lower frequency when H is replaced with D. (Known as "deuterium isotope effect"). A poor rat was fed nothing but D2O and with each drink, metabolism slowed and soon slipped into a coma and passed.

 

A poor rat was fed nothing but D2O and with each drink, metabolism slowed and soon slipped into a coma and passed.

Interesting... what proportion of D2O was contained in the rat's "water" ? ... 100% ?

 

That must be the most expensive way ever to kill a rat!

How much deuterium will a fusion reactor require?

 

How much deuterium will a fusion reactor require?

From the ITER website:

a 1000 MW coal-fired power plant requires 2.7 million tonnes of coal per year, a fusion plant of the kind envisioned for the second half of this century will only require 250 kilos of fuel per year, half of it deuterium, half of it tritium.

The tritium will supposedly be produced by a lining of lithium in the wall of the chamber which generates tritium when exposed to the neutrons from the fusion reaction.

 

Hello,

Deuterium is often used in NMR measurement techniques as lock solvents.
Many solutions will have deuterium in stead of the hydrogen atoms.
Some examples are : D2O , CDCl3 , DMSO , C6D6 and acetone-d6.

• Usually the liquid NMR uses deuterium solvent for stabilizing magnet field (lock) and shimming (gradient shimming). If you have to use samples without deuterium solvent, you are not able to lock the field. The magnet field may drift during the accumulation, resulted in broad lines.

Tritium is radio active.

Bertus

 

From the ITER website:

a 1000 MW coal-fired power plant requires 2.7 million tonnes of coal per year, a fusion plant of the kind envisioned for the second half of this century will only require 250 kilos of fuel per year, half of it deuterium, half of it tritium.

The tritium will supposedly be produced by a lining of lithium in the wall of the chamber which generates tritium when exposed to the neutrons from the fusion reaction.

I saw that as well, but it compared a 1GW coal-fired plant with a fusion plant "of the kind envisioned" - were they envisioning a 1GW fusion plant in order to make a valid comparison?