The Honest Physics Gates

Three physics questions gate Hyperion's design claims: confinement at these parameters, the magnet and center post, and closing the tritium fuel cycle.

What must be proven

Hyperion is a design-and-simulation study. Its numbers are targets derived from models, not measurements from a built machine. Three physics gates stand between the design and a proven breeder, and the program states them plainly because doing so is what makes the rest of the claims trustworthy.

The first is confinement: whether a compact, high-field, negative-triangularity plasma actually confines heat well enough to reach Q_sci 3.076, given that the standard scalings are under-sampled in this corner of parameter space. The second is the magnet and center post: whether 16.84 T peak field can be produced and the center post survive its electromagnetic, thermal, and neutron loads at a limited but usable lifetime (~0.01 fpy). The third is the fuel cycle: whether tritium breeding reaches self-sufficiency, with the TBR 1.8 target's local-versus-net reconciliation still open.

Why stating them builds trust

None of these is claimed as solved. The confinement level is an extrapolation, the center-post life is short and acknowledged, and self-sufficiency at any TBR setting is unproven. Naming the gates, rather than burying them under a single confident performance figure, is the honest posture: the design is promising and specific, and the open questions are specific too. The FOAK first tritium near 2030 is what begins to close them.

• Confinement gate — Q 3.076 at an under-sampled parameter point
• Magnet/center-post gate — 16.84 T and ~0.01 fpy life
• Fuel-cycle gate — self-sufficiency and the TBR 1.8 reconciliation

This page describes a design-and-simulation study, not a built machine. Construction begins Q2 2027; first-of-a-kind first tritium is targeted near 2030. No hardware net-gain is claimed before FOAK.