4.13 Warp Propulsion System fuel Supply

The fuel supply for the WPS is contained within the primary deuterium tank in the Engineering section. The PDT is constructed from a solid block of nanocarbon tubes, which store deuterium at 200 KPA and at room temperature. An electrical jolt moves the deuterium in and out of the tank.

Standard precision phaser cutters make penetrations for supply vessels, vent lines and sensors. There are a total of six main fuel feed manifolds from the PDT to the matter reactant injector, eight cross-feed conduits to the Saucer, Upper and Lower engineering aux tanks.

The total internal volume is 120,300 m^3, thought the normal load is 118,300 m^3. A full load of deuterium is rated to last approximately 7 years. The new form of deuterium tankerage prevents practically any deuterium gas leakage, allowing only a .0000003 kg\day leak rate.

Deuterium is created by standard electro-centrifugal fractioning of a variety of materials, including seawater, outer planet satellite snows and ices, and cometary nuclei and chilling down the fractionated liquid. Each will result in different proportions of deuterium and tailings, but can be handled by the same Starfleet hardware. Deuterium tanker loading ports are located along the structural spine of the ship.

Quantite, on the other hand, must be mined and transferred onboard ship, where it is passed through a special electromagnetic field that purifies the Quantite into a 99.999% pure mass; it is then shunted into heat-insulated tanks.