MetroVolt vs Aegis: One Core, Two Housings
MetroVolt and Aegis are the identical burner core in different packages — grid-adjacent generation versus fixed defense installations.
Same physics, different mission
MetroVolt and Aegis share one burner core: the D-3He tandem mirror with a 26.49 T plug, 17 T throat, 5.44% neutron fraction, and direct energy conversion. The plasma physics, magnets, and converter are the same. What differs is the housing and the mission the packaging serves.
The two housings
- MetroVolt: grid-adjacent generation for data centers and cities — firm power co-located with load, emphasizing compact siting and near-zero water
- Aegis: fixed defense installations — the same core packaged for resilient, independent power at defense sites (not naval)
Why share a core
Sharing one core means both products advance together: every improvement in the plasma, magnets, or converter benefits both, and the modular unit can be built to one design and dressed for either role. It also concentrates the program's engineering and validation effort on a single machine rather than splitting it.
On this site the pages describe the MetroVolt configuration — the burner sited for data centers and cities. Everything about the core physics applies equally to Aegis; the distinction is the envelope, the siting, and the mission, not the machine that makes the power. Both are design-study stage, gated by the shared test unit around 2032.
Keeping the physics identical across both housings is also a licensing and validation advantage: evidence gathered for one supports the other, and the test unit proves a core that both products then inherit rather than two separate machines each needing its own proof.