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Question
How precisely must the plasma be controlled?
Extremely — position, shape, and stability must be held on millisecond and microsecond timescales, which is why Kronos designs an automated, twin-assisted control stack.
Plasma control is one of fusion's genuine engineering challenges, and Kronos's answer is the AI-native control stack built around the digital twin and precise shaping control.
Questions & answers
How tightly does the plasma need to be controlled?
Very tightly, and very fast. The plasma's position, shape, density, and stability must be held continuously — vertical control acts on millisecond timescales, and some protective responses on microseconds. The negative-triangularity shape (δ = −0.30) is a conserved invariant that the control system must maintain.
How does Kronos achieve that?
With a layered control stack: deterministic hardware for the fastest reflexes, a real-time digital twin predicting the plasma 50–100 ms ahead, and a rules engine that clamps every command to physical limits (for example, β_N ≤ 4.5) before it reaches an actuator.
What happens if control is lost?
The plasma fails safe — it stops rather than runs away — and the control system degrades to a deterministic safe state. Loss of control is a shutdown, not a catastrophe.