My thoughts on IAEA and DOE talks on Fusion challenges: Why Fusion matters even without net energy

11 Dec 2025

I thank the International Atomic Energy Agency and the US Department of Energy for organising public talks[1-2] on the challenges facing fusion and what the scientific community is doing to overcome them.

Tritium availability, with total global reserves estimated to be only about 25-30kg [6], is one of the most pressing issues. If fusion is to be self-sustaining then techniques would have to be developed to generate enough tritium that could enable fusion to work. Researchers have identified neutron activation of Lithium as the most promising route but breeding it at a kg scale is no easy task.

Li is a scarce resource[7-8]. Breeder reactors need a special radioactive isotope which is found in even lesser quantities (estimates suggest 7% of total Li). For viable tritium production it’s estimated that a fusion reactor would need tens of tonnes of Li6. Consumption ~ 50 kg per year [9-11]. The energy generated would justify high usage, if challenges associated with breeder designs are overcome.

Fusion tech could have more than one application even when not used as an energy generator —there are already several alternatives available for clean energy generation.

Inertial electrostatic confinement fusion devices are essentially portable particle accelerators that are a rich source of neutrons which can be used for creating radioactive isotopes[13] having applications in the medical industry. These devices are known to be intense x-ray emitters,opening up possibilities in x-ray imaging.

Non-fusing plasmas generated inside compact accelerators like IEC could be immensely useful as an ion source with ion temperatures easily reaching million K enabling materials processing.

Possibilities exist to combine IEC tech with high frequency RF to turn them into high energy particle accelerators creating fusion free neutron source via ion spallation of iron/lead.

This is why fusion tech ,especially electrostatic, holds promise even when it generates no useful power.

The US Department of energy has designated nuclear fusion as a lighthouse project under its genesis mission[3-5] which aims to develop breakthrough scientific technologies that sound audacious today. I support this decision and hope that research continues to advance in this field.

REFERENCES

1 Global Approaches to Tritium Breeding for Fusion: Materials, Challenges, and Pathways

https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/global-approaches-to-tritium-breeding-for-fusion-materials-challenges-and-pathways-111225.pdf

2. The Genesis Mission and Fusion Energy

https://www.pppl.gov/events/2025/genesis-mission-and-fusion-energy

3 A National Mission to Accelerate Science Through Artificial Intelligence

https://genesis.energy.gov/

4 LAUNCHING THE GENESIS MISSION

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/launching-the-genesis-mission/

5 ALCF supercomputing and AI resources enable research breakthroughs in 2024

https://www.alcf.anl.gov/news/alcf-supercomputing-and-ai-resources-enable-research-breakthroughs-2024

6 Promoting Fusion Energy Leadership with U.S. Tritium Production Capacity

https://fas.org/publication/fusion-energy-leadership-tritium-capacity/

7 Lithium

https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/lithium

8 Isotopes of lithium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_lithium

9 Potential lithium requirements for fusion power plants

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0360544278900300

10 Lithium enrichment threatens to curb fusion deployment

https://www.cell.com/joule/abstract/S2542-4351(25)00178-3

11 The Availability & Supply of Critical Natural Resources for the Realization of a Fusion Pilot Plant: Fuels for Fusion

https://science.osti.gov/-/media/fes/pdf/fes-presentations/2022/Pearson_resource-availability-and-supply_presentation.pdf

12 Demand of fusion energy for tritium and the possibility of its production in nuclear reactors

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382153789_Demand_of_fusion_energy_for_tritium_and_the_possibility_of_its_production_in_nuclear_reactors

13 Production of 13 N Via Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion

https://www.osti.gov/biblio/20849572

Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Strategy Consultant–Innovation/ Materials science/International relations/Telecommunications/Digital Transformation/Partnerships

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