Fast protons can react with tritons in an endothermic nuclear reaction which can act as a source of neutrons in magnetically confined fusion plasmas. We have performed an experiment to systematically study this reaction in low tritium concentration (≈1%) plasmas in the Joint European Torus. Alinear dependence is found between excess neutron rate and tritium concentration when the DT fusion rate is low. We discuss the properties of the neutron emission, including anisotropy, from the proton–triton reaction in a fusion reactor environment and derive simple models for the calculation of the neutron yield from this reaction in terms of tritium density, fast ion temperature and fast ion energy content.