3 ms·
Assuming you need enough lithium to replace the tritium, and 100% energy efficiency, one atom of lithium makes one atom of tritium which makes 17.6 MeV of energ
by dmurray 4y ago
Assuming you need enough lithium to replace the tritium, and 100% energy efficiency, one atom of lithium makes one atom of tritium which makes 17.6 MeV of energy [0].
That's an energy output of 7 x 10^7 Wh per gram [1], or alternatively, a 70MW reactor needs one gram per hour, or alternatively, a very large 3.5GW plant needs 500 grams per hour, roughly the equivalent of the water drunk by a single thirsty person.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterium%E2%80%93tritium_fusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterium%E2%80%93tritium_fusi...
[1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=17.6+MeV+divided+by+atomic+mass+of+lithium+in+watt+hours+per+gram https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=17.6+MeV+divided+by+ato...
- aziaziazi 4y agoThanks ! Following up on the napkin : The world final energy consumption (2018) [0] is around 9717Toe or 9,717*11.63=113,009TWh 1g for 70MW = 1T for 70TWh 113,009 / 70 = 1614 1614 ton of lithium every hour seems huge to me, does my calculations are wrong ? [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_supply_and_consumption https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_supply_and_cons...