this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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The fusion reaction with the lowest requirements is the deuterium + tritium reaction. Both are heavy hydrogen isotopes. A common hydrogen nucleus consists of a single proton, a deuterium nucleus consists of a proton and neutron, and a tritium nucleus consists of a proton and two neutrons. The first two are stable while the last is radioactive.
Deuterium is rare but naturally present on Earth. It's no challenge to harvest it from water. You can come across some fun facts when you talk to fusion folks. The top inch of San Diego Bay has enough deuterium to power the city for a year, when fused with tritium in a "burning plasma".
Tritium is not naturally present in harvestable quantities on Earth. This has to be bred through other reactions. The reaction of interest is lithium reacting with a neutron (a neutron is a product of the fusion reaction) which produces tritium and other products.
Effectively, the easiest fusion reaction involves "burning" deuterium and lithium.
Now, there are other fusion reactions that don't involve tritium, but they are more challenging physically, and some have their own challenges for sourcing the required fuel. Almost all fusion reactor proposals today are based on the deuterium + tritium fusion reaction.