Production of Nuclear Battery $β^{-}$ Emitters Driven by Fusion Neutrons

Abstract

Nuclear batteries require radioisotopes with specific combinations of half-life, decay mode, and radiation properties, yet most candidate fuels lack scalable production routes. We show how the future availability of deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion neutrons could enable manufacturing nuclear battery radioisotopes at many orders of magnitude higher rate than at present. We assess the capability of 14 MeV D-T fusion neutrons to produce nuclear battery radioisotopes by simulating feedstock material irradiation with neutrons. Promising radioisotope candidates include ${}^{147}$Pm, ${}^{63}$Ni, ${}^{39}$Ar, and ${}^{137}$Cs. Some feedstocks allow a radioisotope to be produced at scale while also closing the tritium fuel cycle, resulting in hundreds to over one thousand kilograms of high specific activity radioisotope per gigawatt thermal year of D-T fusion irradiation. We perform OpenMC simulations of an enriched ${}^{148}$Nd blanket for a tokamak, demonstrating that tritium self-sufficient designs can produce over one ton of ${}^{147}$Pm per gigawatt thermal year, equivalent to $\sim$one billion Curies per year of ${}^{147}$Pm. Operation of such a blanket would represent an unprecedented increase of nuclear battery radioisotope production capability.