A tokamak core of major radius 5.75 m — the whole confinement device measured in meters, not hectares — changes what counts as a candidate site: brownfields, retiring plant footprints, industrial campuses.
Compactness is engineered, not asserted: the radial build closes at 1.31 m consumed of 1.73 m available (0.42 m spare, verified in the systems closure), the shield reaches its attenuation target at ≈1.20 m, and the low-neutron source term shrinks both the activation footprint and the emergency-planning conversation. Sub-kilogram tritium inventory (a design rule) keeps the radiological site envelope modest.
The balance of plant is correspondingly lean — the DEC train displaces much of the steam-cycle acreage — so the binding siting constraints become interconnect capacity and cooling, both of which retiring thermal sites already own.
Interconnection queues, not turbines, pace new firm power in most markets. A plant that re-uses existing grid injection points and industrial land skips years — and community acceptance starts from 'the site your town already hosts,' the easiest version of that conversation.
| Machine scale | R₀ 5.75 m · a 2.875 m |
| Radial build | 1.31 of 1.73 m (0.42 m spare) |
| Tritium site inventory | < 1 kg (design rule) |
| Steam-cycle acreage | reduced (DEC-led front end) |
| Target sites | retiring thermal · brownfield · industrial |