Tritium is ridiculously rare, incredibly expensive, and central to most fusion energy reactor designs. If research out of Los Alamos National Lab proves to hold true, it might soon become easier to obtain.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen with two neutrons, and is typically used with the non-radioactive deuterium isotope (which contains one neutron) to power prototype fusion plants. The American Chemical Society on Monday shared preliminary findings from Los Alamos physicist Terence Tarnowsky, who has uncovered evidence – albeit from simulations – that the waste from traditional nuclear reactors could be further refined into tritium, turning more than 90,000 metric tons of useless and deadly garbage into a valuable resource.

And by valuable, we mean valuable .

"Right now, th

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