Manufacturing Plan
The breeder is designed for fabrication, with the hardest components, magnets and vessel, treated as long-lead manufactured items from the start.
Design for manufacture
A machine intended to become a small foundry fleet must be manufacturable, not just buildable once. The breeder design separates components into standard fabricated assemblies so that FOAK experience transfers directly to NOAK and BOAK production.
The pacing items
- High-field magnets: REBCO conductor procurement, coil winding, and structural casing
- Vacuum vessel: precision-fabricated, low-outgassing structure sized to the compact geometry
- Breeding blanket modules: lithium-bearing assemblies designed for replacement
- Centerpost: the mechanically and thermally loaded core of a spherical tokamak
Long-lead first
Magnet conductor and the vessel dominate the schedule, so their procurement begins at the start of construction in Q2 2027 even though installation is later. Treating them as long-lead items from day one is what makes the roughly 3.5-year FOAK build achievable.
From one-off to repeatable
FOAK components are expected to be partly bespoke. The manufacturing plan captures which steps were slow, which tolerances were hard to hold, and which parts should be standardized. NOAK converts those lessons into repeatable fabrication, and BOAK settles the standard so that a small number of near-identical machines can be produced with known lead times.
This plan describes intended fabrication for a machine not yet built. It contains no cost content; it is about sequence, lead time, and reproducibility.