What Each Gate Proves

A compact map of the breeder gate program: the physics each gate settles, and the risk each one retires.

Gate by gate

The three physics gates are not interchangeable. Each isolates one dominant uncertainty so it can be settled independently, in the order that the machine can demonstrate it.

Reading the map

G1 addresses whether the plasma physics deliver the design gain. G2 addresses whether the enabling magnet technology is real at the required field. G3 addresses whether the neutron economy closes into a product. Only with all three passed is the foundry demonstrated end to end.

What the gates deliberately do not prove

• Net electric output, which the breeder does not target
• Fleet-scale reproducibility, which is NOAK and BOAK work
• Burner physics, which are a separate machine and program

Order is intentional

Magnet before plasma, plasma before fuel loop. Each gate depends on the one before it: no field, no confinement; no confinement, no neutrons; no neutrons, no bred tritium. The sequence mirrors the physical dependencies of the machine and the commissioning order.

Every entry above is a target for a machine not yet built. The gates are how those targets become demonstrated results.