The Power-Exhaust Problem

Getting the fusion power out without destroying the components it flows through.

Challenge

Concentrated heat flux

All the power a plasma produces must eventually leave through its surfaces — and concentrating it on a small divertor can exceed material limits. Managing power exhaust, chiefly by radiating a large fraction before it reaches the target, is one of fusion's hardest engineering problems. HYPERION leans on a high radiated fraction, a named gate.

The low-neutron burner's linear geometry gives it a gentler exhaust problem.