Simulation Study, Not Built Hardware

MetroVolt’s numbers come from reproducible simulation — valuable for design, but not a substitute for an experiment.

What a simulation can and cannot settle

MetroVolt’s design point is produced by physics and engineering codes: plasma equilibrium and confinement models, power-balance calculations, magnet and structural analysis, and a direct-energy-conversion model. These are reproducible — the inputs and code produce the same outputs on a clean machine — which is the standard we hold ourselves to.

Simulation is strong at exploring a design space, ranking options, and finding where a concept breaks. It is weak wherever the model is incomplete: turbulent transport at the plug, wall and material behavior under a real neutron spectrum, and integrated plant dynamics. Those are exactly the items the test unit exists to measure.

The gap simulation leaves

No amount of computation demonstrates net power; only an integrated machine does. The honest reading of MetroVolt today is: the design is self-consistent in simulation, and several assumptions carry real uncertainty that only hardware resolves.

• Reproducible: same code and inputs give the same design point.
• Explored: sensitivity to field, density, temperature, and geometry.
• Unproven by simulation alone: confinement margin, materials life, net electric output.