Balance of Plant

The conventional plant systems — cooling, power supplies, controls — that surround the fusion core.

Scope

Conventional plant systems

Maturity

Mostly ready for detailed design

Beyond the fusion core sits the balance of plant: heat rejection, electrical distribution, power supplies, instrumentation and controls. Much of this is conventional power-plant and big-science engineering, and Kronos's construction-readiness review classes most of it as ready for detailed design.

Separating the genuinely novel systems (magnets, plasma, direct conversion) from the conventional balance of plant is part of an honest maturity assessment.