Current Drive & Non-Inductive Operation

Current drive sustains the plasma current without a transformer, enabling steady-state operation. Kronos runs a high non-inductive fraction.

Why

A steady plasma current can't come from a transformer alone

Kronos CD power

62 MW

Non-inductive fraction

f_NI = 0.61–0.81

Partner

the self-driven bootstrap current

A tokamak needs a toroidal plasma current, and for short pulses a central transformer can drive it. But a power plant must run continuously, and a transformer can only push current while its flux changes — so steady operation requires non-inductive current drive: sustaining the current with injected beams or radio-frequency waves instead.

Current drive costs power, which subtracts from net output, so the design minimizes how much it needs. Kronos MetroVolt reaches a non-inductive fraction of f_NI = 0.61–0.81 at 62 MW of current-drive power, with the plasma's own bootstrap current (0.59–0.78) supplying the majority. The remaining current-drive frontier — which launcher, at what efficiency — is one of the levers priced explicitly at the G1 testbed.