Fuel Refining

Even with the ever diminishing size of power plants, the energy needs of the Republic's advanced technologies continue to require the abundant availability of cheap and efficient fuel. These fuel sources take two forms: the first being used to power the fusion reactors which are ubiquitous across the Umbrian technological landscape, and the second being antimatter, the exotic particle whose energetic reaction, when combined with normal mass, is necessary to support supra-luminal travel.

For the former, the focus remains on aneutronic fuel sources, or those that create little or no radiation as part of their fusion reaction. While there are several compounds which can be used to support these reactions, the option of choice remains Helium-3, which is available in the atmospheres of gas giants scattered throughout Republic space.

These operations involve seeding the atmosphere of gas giants with floating stations which filter out the ambient gas and isolate just the desired isotopes. For planets with rich concentrations of Helium-3 in the environment, Helium may be the only element collected. In other cases where the amount of He-3 is low, these extractors will capture naturally occurring helium as well as tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, which can be used to produce Helium-3.

Once the gas is extracted, it is transferred to a refinery, which separates the Helium-3 or tritium isotopes from other undesirable forms of helium or hydrogen. From here, the refined gas will be stored, and, it tritium is recovered, He-3 will be produced as a byproduct of nuclear fission. The latter case has the added benefit of providing electricity as a byproduct of the refining process.

The second fuel source required for interstellar transit is antimatter. While its lack of abundance in the observable universe continues to confound theoretical physicists, artificial production of antimatter has been performed since shortly after the dawn of the Republic's space age.

This process relies on large particle accelerators which bombard a target to create energy which then produces both antimatter and matter. This process only produces a small amount of antimatter per cycle, requiring large numbers of colliders to work in concert to produce sufficient quantities of antimatter.

Fortunately, miniaturization has dramatically reduced the footprint of these machines. This allows antimatter generation to occur on nearly every terrestrial world colonized by the Republic, which is sufficient to produce enough fuel to keep interstellar trade moving. However, in order to build up sufficient reserves, massive structures were created on a handful of planets where energy was abundantly available. These sites would be built specifically to provide a base production capacity and prevent any unexpected shortfalls in supply.

Together, the Republic's capacity to provide sufficient fuel to support a modern, multi-stellar civilization is of vital strategic importance, and ensuring the continued availability of these resources is essential for its long-term prosperity.