The Readiness Risk Register

MetroVolt’s main readiness risks — confinement, high field, DEC, materials, helium-3, and scaling — mapped by likelihood and impact.

Risks, ranked honestly

A risk register lists what could prevent MetroVolt from reaching firm power, and weighs each by how likely it is and how much it would matter. The highest-impact risks are the load-bearing physics questions; the highest-likelihood constraints include fuel supply. Naming them is part of the honest picture.

Reading the register

• Plug confinement / magnetic well — high impact, unresolved: could force a design change.
• Helium-3 supply — high impact at fleet scale, constrained today.
• DEC efficiency — moderate: affects output and the water story.
• Materials at ~5.44% neutron fraction — moderate, eased by low fraction.
• Two-to-fleet scaling — moderate, managed by staged builds.

Mitigations, not dismissals

Each risk has a mitigation and a resolving event. Confinement and DEC are resolved by the test unit; helium-3 by the breeder coproduct plus longer-horizon supply; materials by qualification; scaling by the FOAK–NOAK–BOAK ladder. Mitigation reduces risk; it does not close a gate that only hardware can close.