Disruption Countdown and Mitigation UI (Breeder)
When a breeder disruption becomes likely, the interface collapses to a single decision surface: time remaining, options, and the mitigation path — with hardware still authoritative.
The one display that matters in the last moments
A disruption in the breeder (Hyperion) — a rapid loss of the 9.66 MA plasma current — develops on a timescale of milliseconds to tens of milliseconds, faster than a human can compose a plan from scratch. So when disruption risk crosses into the actionable range, the operator view escalates to a purpose-built countdown surface that strips away everything non-essential and shows only what the decision needs. The fast protection itself runs in L1 hardware; this surface supports the human's supervisory choice, it does not replace the failsafe.
What the countdown shows
- Projected time-to-disruption from the predictive shadow, counting down
- The precursors driving the risk, ranked, with confidence
- Available responses: avoidance maneuver vs mitigation (e.g. injection)
- The safe path the MPC recommends, and the envelope margins left
- Failsafe arming status from L1 — what hardware will do if the human does not
The countdown is deliberately calm, not frantic: a clear number, a small number of options, and a recommended action. Panic-inducing design causes errors, so the surface uses the reserved alert palette with restraint and a single distinct tone rather than a cacophony. The recommended action carries its confidence and rationale from the copilot, so the operator can accept it fast or override it knowingly.
Avoidance before mitigation
The surface always favors avoidance while there is time to avoid, and shows the crossover point where avoidance is no longer feasible and mitigation (controlled energy dissipation) becomes the right choice. This mirrors the physics: it is far better to steer the plasma away from the instability than to survive it. If the human takes no timely action, the L1 failsafe acts autonomously, and the surface shows exactly what it will do so the outcome is never a surprise.
The countdown is fed by the precursor timeline and the predictive shadow, and every countdown — acted on or not — is captured for incident replay to validate and improve lead times.