HeLiHy Fuel
The concept of fuel in the late twenty first century is very different from the concept in earlier times. In earlier times there were many fuels that powered civilization, ranging from feed for animals, to wood and coal, to liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons, and even uranium, plutonium, or thorium for fission reactors. By 2060 all of those fuels were, for all practical purposes, mere anachronisms. The only significant fuel used in 2060 is a combination of hydrogen, lithium, and helium mixed in very precise ratios, a product called HeLiHy. The fuel was developed during the 2030's and 2040's as part of the development of practical fusion power, and it remains the most critical fusion fuel. There are other mixtures used, most notably a deuterium-tritium mixture that is used in large scale stationary plants on Earth, Mars, Ganymede and Callisto. The dangers of using the radioactive D-T combination and the far greater neutron emissions, which require massive heavy shielding, are offset by the much greater output and efficiency, with some megacity power centers producing thirty gigawatts or more, baseload. Space travel, however, and the extreme majority of space-based power generation, rely entirely on HeLiHy fuel. The exact formula for HeLiHy has remained a closely guarded secret held by The Pleiades Corporation, which is also the sole manufacturer of the space drive systems that rely on the fuel. The sale of HeLiHy fuel is a major profit center for the corporation, as the use of any other formulation in their reactors and rocket engines both voids the warranty and violates Corporate Policies; the penalty for use of unauthorized fuel ranges from a large fine for emergency situations to major fines or even summary dismissal for patterns of repeated misuse.
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