Learn › Comparisons & deep-dives
Deep-dive
Deep Dive: The Plant Power Flow
How 1,221 MW of fusion power becomes 486 MWe net — through the charged/neutron split, direct conversion, and the plant's own recirculating loads.
- Fusion power
- 1,221 MW (frozen Mode-D point)
- Neutron fraction
- 7.70% (low-neutron)
- Recirculating
- Heating (62 MW CD), magnets, cryo, BOP
- Net electric
- 486 MWe (Q_eng 3.9, exhaust-honest)
Following the energy from fusion reactions to grid electricity shows where a fusion plant's performance is won and lost. In Kronos MetroVolt (deposited power-flow analysis S57):
- Fusion power of 1,221 MW is produced in the plasma at the frozen near-thermal Mode-D point (the gated hot-ion ceiling of ≈2.41 GW is labeled history).
- Only 7.70% emerges as neutrons (the low-neutron advantage); the majority is charged particles and radiation.
- Direct energy conversion captures the charged-particle and radiated energy at a blended efficiency, producing gross electricity without a steam cycle.
- The plant's own recirculating loads — 62 MW of current drive, the magnets, the cryoplant, and balance of plant — are subtracted.
- What remains is 486 MWe net — 652 MWe gross less all plant loads — an engineering gain of Q_eng = 3.9 on the exhaust-honest ledger (the ceiling ledgers, 0.61–0.84 GWe, are labeled history).
Minimizing recirculating power — especially via a high bootstrap fraction — is as important to the net number as the fusion power itself. See engineering gain.