Helium-3 blankets for tritium breeding in near-term and commercial fusion systems

The purpose of this paper is to examine the essential features of tritium breeding blankets employing helium-3 as the breeding medium. The concept exhibits good tritium breeding potential, attractive safety features, and relatively low development risk. Both near-term and commercial applications are considered. The near-term application is based on using terrestial sources of helium-3, while the commercial application is based on an extra-terrestrial helium-3 source, perhaps the lunar surface. If these helium-3 sources can be realized at costs in the range of -- 100-500 $/g then helium-3 offers an attractive alternative to lithium as a tritium breeding medium for fusion applications.