Burner as Resilient Power Source
The burner is conceived as a resilient prime-power source: on-site, energy-dense-fueled, and independent of the grid, subject to open physics gates.
The resilience concept
The burner (Aegis / MetroVolt) is a deuterium-helium-3 tandem-mirror generator with direct energy conversion. As a resilience concept it targets three properties at once: on-site generation (no long transmission line), energy-dense fuel (long resupply interval), and grid independence (no reliance on the utility). Together these address the dominant single points of failure in site power.
The tandem-mirror configuration uses a 26.49 T plug field and 17 T throat field to confine the plasma, with a neutron fraction of 5.44% because deuterium-helium-3 is a low-neutron fuel. Direct energy conversion turns charged-particle energy into electricity without a full thermal cycle, a feature attractive for compact, resilient generation.
Why the concept is not yet a capability
Four honest gates separate the concept from a fielded machine: plug-coil overstress (3-3.9x), an operating regime 166-830x beyond any device, helium-3 fuel demand ~400x domestic supply, and availability 0.86-0.995 versus Tier III 0.99982. These are physics findings from design and simulation, stated plainly because they define what must be solved.
- Targets on-site, dense-fuel, grid-independent power at once
- Tandem mirror: 26.49 T plug, 17 T throat, 5.44% neutron fraction
- Direct energy conversion avoids a full thermal cycle
- Four honest gates separate concept from capability
It is worth separating the three resilience properties, because they can be delivered partially. On-site siting and grid independence are architectural choices that many sources can offer; the long resupply interval is what fusion fuel density adds uniquely. A candid assessment credits fusion specifically for the interval and the small fuel footprint, while acknowledging that the architectural properties are shared with other on-site sources.
Design-and-simulation stage; no net-power hardware claim is made.