Technology Readiness Levels

The nine-level TRL scale, and an honest placement of the Kronos machines within it.

A shared vocabulary for maturity

Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are a 1-to-9 scale, widely used across defense acquisition, for describing how mature a technology is — from basic principles observed (TRL 1) through a system proven in operational use (TRL 9). The scale is deliberately coarse; its value is a common language, not false precision.

Where the Kronos machines sit

• Core plasma physics and confinement concepts draw on decades of community research (higher TRL for the concepts themselves).
• The specific Kronos breeder and burner integrated designs sit in the research-and-feasibility band (TRL 1-3) as design & simulation studies.
• Component technologies vary: REBCO high-field magnets and tritium handling have more experimental maturity than the integrated Kronos systems that use them.

Why not claim higher

A TRL is assigned to a specific technology in a specific application, not to a field. It would be inaccurate to inherit the field's maturity for an integrated machine that has not been built. Construction of the FOAK breeder begins Q2 2027; first tritium is targeted for approximately 2030. Only operating hardware moves the integrated system up the scale, and Kronos will report that movement when it happens, not before.

TRL is paired with manufacturing and integration readiness on adjacent pages, because a plant is only as ready as the least ready of the three.