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Inertia Enterprises has developed a method for manufacturing nuclear fusion fuel pellets in two to three hours, compared with a week or more at the NIF facility. This reduction could help lower the cost of a commercial plant and the inventory of tritium fuel required to operate it.
Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, IBM, and Cleveland Clinic have shown that a workflow combining quantum and classical computing with artificial intelligence can simulate the chemistry of molten salts associated with tritium fuel production for fusion reactors. The results remain preliminary, but they represent a step toward designing salt blankets for fusion reactors before testing them in practice.