Burner Tandem-Mirror Twin
The burner twin tracks the plug and throat fields, plasma confinement, and direct energy conversion of a deuterium-helium-3 tandem mirror.
A different machine, a different twin
The Kronos burner is not a tokamak but a tandem-mirror generator, a linear magnetic configuration that confines plasma between high-field magnetic plugs. Its twin therefore carries different physics from the breeder's: the dominant concerns are the plug and throat fields, the confinement of ions along the axis, and the direct conversion of charged-particle energy to electricity. It burns deuterium and helium-3, a reaction that produces far fewer neutrons than deuterium-tritium.
The plug and throat
A tandem mirror confines plasma by making the magnetic field stronger at the ends, forming plugs that reflect particles back toward the center. The burner design uses a plug field of 26.49 tesla and a throat field of 17 tesla. The twin reconstructs the plasma conditions in and between these regions, since confinement quality depends sensitively on the plug fields and on the electric potentials they help establish.
Low neutron fraction
- Deuterium-helium-3 fusion yields mostly charged particles, not neutrons
- The burner's neutron fraction is 5.44 percent, low compared with a deuterium-tritium machine
- This shifts the twin's life tracking toward thermal and magnetic cycling over neutron damage
- It also enables direct energy conversion of the charged-particle output
Direct energy conversion
Because most of the fusion energy leaves as charged particles, the burner can convert their kinetic energy to electricity directly, rather than only as heat. The twin tracks the direct-conversion system's performance as part of the plant state, coupling plasma output to the conversion stage.
Two housings, one machine
The burner is deployed in two housings: Aegis, for fixed defense installations, and MetroVolt, for data centers. The underlying machine and its twin physics are the same; the housings differ in siting and integration. Because these are planned as fleets, the burner twin is designed for fleet learning from the start. Everything here rests on design and simulation models; construction begins in the second quarter of 2027 and no net-gain claim is made before the first-of-a-kind breeder operates near 2030. See magnet system twin.