The Honest Gates
The starkest results from our own design study, published plainly — because finding them in simulation, before building, is the point.
We publish our hardest problems
Kronos designs digitally before it builds. That discipline only means something if we publish what the simulations find — including the results that hurt. Below are the starkest gates in the current design. Each is a physics or engineering fact stated against a public benchmark, with the levers we are using to close it.
- Plug coil overstressed ~3–3.9× at the design bore — infeasible as specified
- Plug regime 166–830× beyond any device — un-post-dictable today
- He-3 demand ~400× domestic supply per unit — gated on a fuel supply that isn't built yet
- Availability 0.86–0.995 vs Tier III 0.99982 — 30–100× short on downtime
What this is, and is not
These are design-and-simulation findings. The machines are not built, and no net-power or feasibility claim is made for any gate that is still open. Naming a gate is a commitment to close it, not a concession that it cannot be closed.
Sources. Kronos burner design study (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21746479); these multipliers are our own simulation findings, stated against public benchmarks.