Honest Limits: A Design-Stage Study

MetroVolt's water advantage follows from its architecture, but the burner is a simulation study, not built hardware, and the water story is stated within that limit.

What is proven and what is designed

The water advantage rests on a proven principle: a generator with no steam cycle has no condenser cooling load. That physics is not in doubt. What is not yet demonstrated in hardware is the burner itself. It is a design-and-simulation study, with a test unit planned around 2032, perfected while the breeder (Hyperion) is built.

What we do not claim

• No hardware net-gain claim ahead of the breeder's first-of-a-kind milestone
• No certified water figures; comparisons here are schematic and directional
• No economic claim of any kind attached to the water advantage
• No assertion that the burner uses zero water, only almost none for generation

What is robust regardless

Even at the design stage, the water story's core is firm because it is architectural. Remove the steam cycle and you remove steam-cycle water; that conclusion does not depend on the final component detail, only on using direct energy conversion for the dominant output. The frozen neutron fraction of 5.44% bounds the mandatory heat load that remains.

Why we state limits plainly

A credible water story is a bounded one. Overclaiming, zero water, guaranteed performance, built-and-proven, would undermine the genuine, defensible point. MetroVolt's honest claim is narrow and strong: as a direct-conversion generator, its architecture removes the largest reason power plants consume water, and that will hold when it is built.