Tool
What would it take?
Pick a technology and a quantity. The calculator multiplies out the material bill and puts each total next to the entire world’s annual production of that material — which is usually the number that changes how the answer feels.
1,000,000 × Single-Crystal Turbine Blade — A turbine blade grown as one continuous crystal so it has no grain boundaries to creep along.
Quantities are per blade set indicative range tonnes of contained material
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| Material | Per unit | Total, low | Total, high | World annual production | Share of a year’s supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobalt | trace | — | — | not published | — |
| Hafnium | trace | — | — | not published | — |
| Nickel Typically 60% or more of the alloy. | trace | — | — | not published | — |
| Rhenium A few percent of a metal produced in tens of tonnes a year worldwide. | trace | — | — | not published | — |
| Tantalum | trace | — | — | not published | — |
| Yttrium | trace | — | — | not published | — |
Intensity ranges are indicative, compiled from published technology studies and chemistry — not a manufacturer specification. World production is USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, 2025 (estimated), converted to tonnes of the same basis where the source reports thousands of tonnes or kilograms · source ↗. This is an educational order-of-magnitude tool. It is not a procurement estimate and must not be used as one.