Fusion tritium program in the United States

The fusion technology development program for tritium in the U.S is centered around the Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Objectives of this project are to develop and demonstrate the fuel cycle for processing the reactor exhaust gas (unburned deuterium and tritium plus impurities), and the necessary personnel and environmental protection systems for the next generation of fusion devices. The TSTA is a full-scale system for a machine the size of the International Tokamak Reactor (INTOR) or the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). That is, TSTA has the capacity to process tritium in a closed loop mode at the rate of 1 kg per day, requiring a tritium inventory of about 100 g. The TSTA program also interacts with all other tritium-related fusion technology programs in the U.S. and all major programs abroad. This report is a summary of the results and interactions of the TSTA program since a previous summary was published and an overview of related tritium programs