Ok, so I hadn’t known about that. I am surprised I didn’t know about that. It does look like producing it is a minor problem - ~5% of natural lithium is in this form. You can apparently make it in nuclear reactors as well. But you’re right, once you produce it, you have it.
However, to further my point, isotope separation isn’t exactly easy, and other than the use for nuclear fusion, lithium-6 dueteride doesn’t have value, outside selling for nuclear weapons.
Knowing about how Putin sold and nationalized private business and government entities in the 90s and early 2000s, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sold the Soviet stockpile for an enormous amount to otherwise sanctioned countries.
The reason I came to this conclusion was when they withdrew from the Test Ban treaty, and have yet to actually succeed in a nuclear weapon test. I think they are attempting to rebuild their arsenal, and it’s not going well.
A nitpick: that’s why you use lithium-6 deuteride. It gets converted to tritium by radiation at a moment’s notice. Lithium 6 is a stable isotope.
Ok, so I hadn’t known about that. I am surprised I didn’t know about that. It does look like producing it is a minor problem - ~5% of natural lithium is in this form. You can apparently make it in nuclear reactors as well. But you’re right, once you produce it, you have it.
However, to further my point, isotope separation isn’t exactly easy, and other than the use for nuclear fusion, lithium-6 dueteride doesn’t have value, outside selling for nuclear weapons.
Knowing about how Putin sold and nationalized private business and government entities in the 90s and early 2000s, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sold the Soviet stockpile for an enormous amount to otherwise sanctioned countries.
The reason I came to this conclusion was when they withdrew from the Test Ban treaty, and have yet to actually succeed in a nuclear weapon test. I think they are attempting to rebuild their arsenal, and it’s not going well.
No-one has to do real life nuke tests anymore