Deuterium-tritium fusion reactors without external tritium breeding

An inherent property of deuterium fusion burn-up equations is presented, due to which deuterium-tritium reactions can be exploited without needing tritium breeding in external blankets. A small amount of tritium is added to the deuterium plasma in order to trigger ignition at less than 10 keV, and the same amount of tritium is found in the debris of the burnt-up plasma if the burning temperature is higher than 200 keV. Plasma parameters to exploit this property are very similar to those of inertial fusion confinement. Tritium inventory in a reactor would thus be reduced to a minimum value, because the initial composition of the fuel would be of the type DT(x), with x approximate to 0.02, and tritium would immediately be reprocessed to fabricate new fuel. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.