Alex McColgan

speaker

29,301 appearances 104 recordings 1 series first heard Nov 2024 last heard 3d ago

Alex McColgan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 68 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 11.

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Astrum Space · What We Detected in the Strangest Quantum Experiments on Earth · 7 Sep 2026 podcast

Now, ITER estimates that a commercial fusion plant would require around 125 kg of tritium a year to run. voice-verified

Current global tritium reserves are around 25 kg. voice-verified

And as half of Canada's reactors are due to be decommissioned this decade, this tiny reserve is quite literally going to decay away. voice-verified

But of course, scientists do have a solution up their sleeves for the tritium supply problem. voice-verified

As well as carrying energy out of the reactor, those high-energy neutrons produced by deuterium-tritium fusion can be used for something called tritium breeding. voice-verified

The idea is that you make the blanket surrounding the reactor out of a substance that generates tritium when bombarded by neutrons. voice-verified

The substance preferred by most fusion researchers is lithium. voice-verified

which upon absorbing a neutron, helpfully decays into a helium atom and tritium. voice-verified

However, as ever in fusion, this solution comes with its own problem. voice-verified

If each deuterium-tritium fusion reaction generates one neutron, which via lithium can be used to generate one new tritium, you would need to operate at an impossible 100% efficiency to prevent your tritium supply from dwindling. voice-verified

The answer most fusion researchers favour is to add layers of other elements like beryllium that can act as neutron multipliers, absorbing one neutron and spitting out two. voice-verified

But not only is beryllium toxic, it is also in short supply, and contaminated with uranium voice-verified

which then bombarded with neutrons, leads to radioactive byproducts. voice-verified

Less than ideal. voice-verified

And regardless, there are concerns that even with breeding, most reactors would struggle to generate enough tritium to be viable. voice-verified

So, at this point you might be thinking, hang on a minute. voice-verified

it seems a lot of the touted advantages of fusion, bountiful energy, plentiful starting materials, innocuous, if even useful byproducts, are kind of falling away. voice-verified

Well, you'd be right. voice-verified

We're not fusing hydrogen, or at least the same isotopes of hydrogen that the star fuses, and we're not making just helium, but a bunch of other radioactive products as well. voice-verified

The simple truth, no matter what the headlines say, is that we can't make a star on Earth. voice-verified

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