The Tokamak Approach

The most-studied path: a toroidal magnetic bottle with a driven plasma current.

Maturity

Highest

Challenge

Disruptions, D–T neutrons

The tokamak is the most experimentally mature confinement concept, with the largest performance database, exemplified by public devices such as JET and the ITER project. Its strengths are that database and its high confinement; its challenges are disruptions, steady-state current drive, and the neutron load of D–T operation.

Kronos's breeder is a compact spherical tokamak — it draws on this mature science while running at low aspect ratio for high beta.