L7 Roadmap and Honest Framing
Layer 7 is built and validated now against the digital twin and simulated counterparties; it carries live external traffic only as real units commission from FOAK ~2030.
What exists now, and what does not
L7's interfaces, policies, and coordination logic are built and exercised today, but against the digital twin and simulated external counterparties, not operating hardware. This is the honest framing that governs every page in this layer: the two machines are design and simulation studies. Breeder construction begins Q2 2027; first-of-a-kind first tritium is targeted ~2030; no hardware net-gain is claimed before FOAK.
Why build the ecosystem layer before the hardware
Building L7 against the twin first means the external boundary (API contract, dispatch path, isotope offtake, compliance feeds, fleet coordination) is validated end to end before it carries consequence. When a real unit commissions, it is enrolled into interfaces that already work, rather than interfaces invented under operational pressure. The registry status field simply advances a unit from design-stage to commissioned; nothing else in the boundary changes.
| Milestone | Machines | L7 status |
|---|---|---|
| Now | design & simulation | validated vs twin |
| Q2 2027 | breeder construction | interfaces frozen |
| ~2030 FOAK | first tritium | live isotope + compliance |
| NOAK / BOAK | foundry + fleet grows | full fleet coordination |
The sequencing is fuel-honest. The breeder foundry leads, producing tritium, helium-3, and neutron services from FOAK; the burner fleet follows as helium-3 supply and validated performance allow, with larger fleets ultimately gated by helium-3 sourcing beyond the breeders. L7 encodes these dependencies so no plan outruns the physics or the fuel.
Every quantitative claim in this layer is bounded by the frozen canon: breeder Q_sci 3.076, 85.0 MW, 9.66 MA, 16.84 T, delta -0.30, ~4 kg/yr tritium and ~1.97 kg/yr helium-3 classes, TBR lever 1.1/1.5/1.8; burner 26.49 T plug, 17 T throat, 5.44% neutron fraction, direct energy conversion. No figure outside this canon is invented, and no economic figure appears anywhere in the layer.
The roadmap is therefore not a promise of operation but a plan for readiness: an ecosystem boundary proven in simulation, frozen at construction, and switched to live traffic unit by unit as the foundry and fleet become real.