Cooling The MetroVolt Burner

MetroVolt's cooling handles only residual heat through closed loops rejected to air, so its water footprint is dominated by facility use, not power generation.

What actually needs cooling

MetroVolt's cooling system serves the residual loads: neutron heating of the structure, direct-converter and magnet losses, and plasma-facing components. Each is carried by a dedicated closed coolant loop. Because there is no steam condenser, there is no high-volume evaporative demand.

Closed loops, dry rejection

• Coolant recirculates in sealed loops; it is not consumed by the cooling process
• Final rejection is to air via dry heat exchangers, avoiding evaporation
• Small makeup covers leakage and maintenance, not continuous evaporative loss

What water remains

The residual water use at a MetroVolt site is ordinary facility water: sanitary use, occasional coolant makeup, and any water-treatment for the closed loops. This is a facility footprint, not a generation footprint. It does not scale with the plant's electrical output the way a steam plant's cooling water does.

Why co-location works

Because MetroVolt does not compete with a data center for a large cooling-water supply, it can sit next to the load it serves. The data center's own server cooling and the generator's residual cooling can even share dry-cooling and waste-heat-reuse infrastructure, rather than both bidding for scarce basin water.

Design-stage caveat

This architecture is defined at the design level; the burner is a simulation study with a test unit planned around 2032. The cooling principle, small residual loads on closed loops rejected to air, follows directly from removing the steam cycle and is robust regardless of final component detail.