Does Kronos skip D–T?

No — Kronos runs D–T first, deliberately. The breeder is a D–T machine, and it exists precisely because you have to make the advanced fuel before you can burn it.

First machine

HYPERION — a D–T breeder

Its job

Make tritium and, via decay, helium-3

Second machine

The D–³He low-neutron burner

Order

Breed with D–T first, then burn D–³He

An earlier framing suggested Kronos would leap past D–T straight to an advanced fuel. The current, frozen strategy is the reverse — and it is stronger for it.

The clean fuel the burner wants, helium-3, is scarce on Earth. So the first machine Kronos builds is a D–T breeder: it burns deuterium and tritium, captures the neutrons, and breeds about 4 kg of tritium per year. That tritium decays into helium-3 — roughly 1.97 kg/yr — which becomes the seed fuel for the D–³He burner.

This is the breeder-first strategy, and "neutrons first" is its motto: embrace D–T's neutrons in machine one so that machine two can run low-neutron. Kronos does not skip D–T; it depends on it.