The MetroVolt Whitepaper Library

Forty short papers — 60% science, 40% why-it-matters — each traceable to the open 81-simulation deposit (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21248916).

Publication series 1 — The Machine

01Shaped to Behave: Why MetroVolt Runs the Triangle Upside-DownNegative triangularity trades a little textbook elegance for a plasma edge that doesn't bite.

02Small Giant: The Aspect-Ratio-2 Spherical TokamakA fatter torus squeezes more plasma pressure out of every tesla — and every dollar.

03The Fuel That Barely Bites: D-³He and the 5.25% Neutron BudgetChoose the reaction, and you choose the plant you must build around it.

04The Frozen Point: One Operating Point, Zero Moving GoalpostsEvery number in the series describes the same machine — because we froze it and threw away the eraser.

05Does It All Close? Eight Constraints, One AnswerThe most dangerous failure mode in fusion design is a machine that works chapter by chapter and fails as a whole.

06Not a Knife-Edge: MetroVolt's Operating WindowA physics demonstration needs one good shot. A power plant needs room to breathe.

07Confinement, Stated Plainly: The H98 = 1.8–2.2 RequirementMost fusion concepts hide their hardest number. Ours is printed in the abstract.

0842.5 Million Amps, Safely: The q95 ≥ 5 DisciplinePlasma current buys confinement — and sells stability. MetroVolt sets the exchange rate in public.

09Holding 24.6 Tesla: REBCO Magnets Without ExoticsThe field that makes a compact machine possible is bought with tape you can already order.

10One Turn Outboard: The Field Lever That Buys Demonstrated MarginSometimes the highest-value engineering move in a reactor is four centimeters long.

11When Plasmas Quit: Engineering for the 10.3 GJ DisruptionWe sized the worst day in the plant's life before sizing the best one.

13Turbulence, Priced: The Gyrokinetic Case and the Runs That Will Test ItWe modeled the hardest physics with the honest tools — and deposited the decks for the harder ones.

14Stability With Headroom: βN 4.33 Today, +24% With the WallThe design point rides the free-plasma limit — and the upgrade path is already adjudicated.

15Electricity Without the Steam Detour: Multi-Modal Direct Energy ConversionWhen fusion energy arrives as charged particles, you can harvest it like electricity — because it already is.

16The Hard Question We Kept: Proton Channeling and the DEC GateThe single biggest efficiency lever in the plant is also the one we refuse to assume.

17Two Throttles: Near-Thermal Baseline, Hot-Ion UpsideOne machine, two honest operating postures — and the conservative one signs the contracts.

180.61 to 0.84 Gigawatts: What One MetroVolt DeliversCity-scale firm power from a machine that fits behind existing fences.

19The Low-Neutron Dividend: Zero Blanket ChangeoutsWe derived our biggest economic advantage from our own materials ledger — both sides of it.

20Fuel for Decades: The Helium-3 Supply StrategyThe rarest input in the plant is managed like what it is — a strategic commodity with a staged plan.

21Under One Kilogram: Tritium-Lean by DesignThe isotope that dominates fusion licensing is a trace species in this plant.

22Quiet Neighbor: ~25× Lower Activation and the Low-Level-Waste PathWhat a fusion plant leaves behind is a choice made at the fuel line, decades in advance.

23Shield Craft: Multigroup Neutronics in a Compact BuildEvery centimeter between plasma and magnet is contested real estate. We surveyed it properly.

24Materials With Receipts: 4,744 Measured Points from the ITER HandbookOur structures are designed against curated measurements, not textbook constants.

25The Honest Cost Ladder: FOAK $84–92 to Fleet $48–56One levelized-cost story, told the same way to physicists, financiers, and skeptics.

26What Buyers Sign: The $56–92 Required-PPA BandThe number that matters to an offtaker is the price that makes the plant financeable.

27Learning Curves That Pay: Wright's Law from Unit 1 to Unit 50Fusion's cost future is a manufacturing question, and manufacturing questions have known math.

28Firm Power, Priced: MetroVolt in Real Electricity MarketsThe grid's scarcest product is no longer energy — it is around-the-clock certainty.

29What a First Plant Costs: Inside the $3.15B FOAK Bill of MaterialsCredible capital costs are built from the bottom, one subsystem at a time.

30Half a Billion to Certainty: The G1 Gate TestbedBefore anyone builds a $3B plant, physics gets one decisive, affordable trial.

31Beyond the Grid: Hydrogen, Heat, and Off-Take FlexibilityA firm gigawatt is a platform. Electricity is only its first product.

32Compact Footprint, Big Siting FreedomThe best site for new firm power is the one that already has wires — and now it can be.

3381 Simulations, Zero Secrets: The Open Validation ManifestOur design's evidence isn't summarized on our website. It is downloadable from it.

34Run It Yourself: 43 Scripts, One Command, Same NumbersReproducibility isn't a promise in our methods section. It's a shell command.

35Gates, Not Vibes: How MetroVolt Adjudicates Its Own RisksEvery fusion design has open questions. Ours have names, numbers, and referees.

36The Findings We Kept That Hurt: Adverse Results in the RegisterYou can tell a validation programme is real by what it publishes against itself.

37Regulated Like Fusion, Not Fission: The 2026 FrameworkFor the first time in the industry's history, the licensing path matches the physics.

38AEGIS: Energy Assurance for Defense MissionsThe same physics that makes clean baseload makes something rarer — energy sovereignty at the installation scale.

39From Paper to Power: The MetroVolt Gate RoadmapThe plan is public: close the gates, in order, in the open.

40Start Here: A Reader's Guide to the Four-Paper SeriesForty whitepapers summarize it. Four papers prove it. One deposit lets you check it.

Prefer the full record? The four-paper series, the bound validation package, and all code and data live at DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21248916 (CC BY 4.0).