Home · Tandem Mirror vs Tokamak
Comparison
Tandem mirror vs tokamak: what's the difference?
Tokamaks confine plasma in a ring; tandem mirrors confine it in a straight line between magnetic plugs. Kronos uses both — a spherical tokamak to breed the fuel, and a tandem mirror to burn it.
Side by side
Two geometries, two jobs.
Tokamak
A magnetic ring
- Toroidal (doughnut) plasma confined by a ring of magnets
- The most-studied confinement approach (ITER, SPARC)
- Excellent confinement; complex geometry and disruptions to manage
- Kronos uses a compact spherical tokamak (HYPERION) to breed fuel
Kronos
A linear machine
- Straight central cell between high-field magnetic plugs
- No toroidal current, so no tokamak-style disruptions
- Open ends handled by direct energy conversion — no steam
- Kronos uses a tandem mirror (Aegis, MetroVolt) to burn D–³He
Kronos doesn't pick one — it uses each where it's strongest: the tokamak breeds, the mirror burns.
Verify it yourself
Open by design.
Go deeper
See how the two connect.
The full breeder-to-burner architecture, in plain terms.
Conceptual design and simulation study; the integrated Kronos machines are not yet built, and certain results are requirement-class. No financial figures are published on this site.