This seems to be the critical assumption in Sawan and Abdou's paper: The tritium bred in the CANDU reactors is the only practical source available for ITER and

This seems to be the critical assumption in Sawan and Abdou's paper: The tritium bred in the CANDU reactors is the only practical source available for ITER and other DT fusion systems [3,4]. Citation 3 is "personal communication." 4 is this 2002 presentation: http://www.fusion.ucla.edu/abdou/abdou%20presentations/2002/DevPath%20Presentation/DevPath%20Presentation%20(10-28-02)%20FINAL2.pdf http://www.fusion.ucla.edu/abdou/abdou%20presentations/2002/... Page 32 of that presentation, "Tritium Supply Calculation Assumptions", says it is assumed that the following will NOT happen: • Restarting idle CANDU’s • Processing moderator from non-OPG CANDU’s (Quebec, New Brunswick) • Building more CANDU’s • Irradiating Li targets in commercial reactors (including CANDU’s) • Obtaining tritium from weapons programs of “nuclear superpowers” • Premature shutdown of CANDU reactors But assumptions 3 and 4 have already been invalidated. China has added CANDU reactors since the presentation and is building a few more abroad for other countries. The United States has started irradiating lithium targets in commercial reactors. So in my judgment, closing the tritium cycle still isn't on the critical path to fusion industrialization. There are other crucial problems to solve before "where will we get enough tritium for these fusion reactors?" becomes a crucial issue.