Tylium (RDM)

This article covers the Re-imagined Series fuel. For the fuel used in the Original Series, see: tylium (TOS).

Apollo destroys a Cylon base to win supplies of tylium ^{(TRS: "The Hand of God")}.

Tylium (pronounced "TILL-lee-um") is a material used to fuel the propulsion systems of Colonial and Cylon spacecraft. At least three forms exist: tylium ore, refined tylium precursor, and refined tylium (the fuel itself).

Typically, tylium ore is mined from asteroids and is apparently not found on the Twelve Colonies natively. Large tylium ore deposits can keep fleets fueled for years ^{(TRS: "The Hand of God")}. In its raw form, tylium is a relatively fine, powdery substance that is liquefied and refined by refinery ships. Care needs to be taken to not introduce impurities into the fuel, which can cause engine malfunctions ^{(TRS: "Dirty Hands")}.

According to Dr. Gaius Baltar, tylium has the following characteristics:

Tylium ore is rendered inert and unusable when exposed to nuclear radiation;
Refined tylium precursor is more unstable and much easier to ignite than the finished fuel itself;
Refined tylium has a tremendous enthalpy to the order of approximately half a million gigajoules per kilogram, or about 6 times greater than uranium-235 and 81% that of deuterium fusion;
A tylium detonation results in no radioactive fallout ^{(TRS: "The Hand of God")}

Pure tylium can be easily detonated by a conventional warhead. Moreover, igniting fuel lines on spaceships usually quickly result in their loss ^{(TRS: "Miniseries, Night 1")}. The fuel can also be used to construct improvised mines ^{(TRS: "The Eye of Jupiter")}.

Notes

Enthalpy describes the thermodynamic potential of a system (H), and its simplest definition is the sum of the system's internal energy (U), and the product of its pressure (p) and volume (V): H = U + pV.
The official series web page on the Sci-Fi Channel web site incorrectly spells the substance as "tyllium" in the description of the mining ship on the ships page. As the Original Series DVD material, as well as labels seen in "Dirty Hands," show the spelling as "tylium," Battlestar Wiki contributors should use "tylium" as the correct spelling.
The first usage of this term uses the "TIE-lee-um" pronunciation (q.v. Original Series' "Saga of a Star World") as opposed to subsequent uses of "TILL-lee-um" (q.v. Re-imagined Series' "Miniseries").

Notes

See Also