Learn › Questions people ask
Question
How does Kronos handle plasma disruptions?
Kronos reduces disruption likelihood with an ELM-free edge and strong control, and budgets the loads of a 10 GJ event — while stating runaway mitigation as an open item.
Disruptions are the hazard every tokamak must engineer against, and Kronos treats them on two fronts: reducing how often they happen (via the ELM-free edge and robust control) and budgeting the loads when they do. See plasma disruption and runaway electrons for the physics.
Questions & answers
What is a disruption, and why does it matter?
A disruption is the sudden loss of plasma confinement — the defining hazard of a tokamak, dumping thermal and magnetic energy into the structure. Kronos MetroVolt designs against a disruption energy of order 10 GJ at its 42.5 MA plasma current.
How does Kronos reduce the risk?
The negative-triangularity edge is ELM-free (removing one whole class of edge events), the vertical-control margin is 2.02, and a resistive-wall-mode feedback system holds the plasma stable at high beta. Fewer triggers, and stronger control, mean fewer disruptions.
What's still open?
Runaway-electron mitigation at 42.5 MA is carried honestly as an open engineering item — the thermal and electromagnetic loads are budgeted, but a validated runaway-mitigation scheme is still to be demonstrated.
Honest gapRunaway-electron mitigation at 42.5 MA is an open engineering item; disruption thermal and EM loads are budgeted.