Hyperion is sized to the government's stated materials requirement rather than to the physics optimum the plasma could reach. That single philosophical choice cascades through the whole design — smaller, safer, more licensable, buildable sooner.
A physics-optimum machine maximises output; a requirement-sized machine hits a target and stops. Hyperion chooses the latter, using the breeding-ratio lever to match a stated need. The result is a machine defined by what it must deliver, not by what it could.
Every subsystem inherits the discipline: modest current, bounded inventory, demonstrated confinement, precedent-based schedule. Requirement-sizing is the quiet decision that makes 'the buildable one' true across the whole card.
| Sizing basis | stated requirement |
| Not | physics optimum |
| Lever | tritium breeding ratio |
| Cascade | modest current, bounded inventory |
| Result | buildable, licensable, near-term |