Design Blueprint: A Spheromak Reactor Formed by Merging and Adiabatic Compression: Formation Energy Recovery and Burn Balance

Design blueprint derived from the source paper (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.24159809): This paper presents a complete, computed design study of a fusion power plant based on a spheromak: a compact torus sustained by helicity injection inside a close-fitting conducting shell, with no coils linking the plasma. The fuel is deuterium tritium, releasing 17.6 MeV per reaction, of which 14.1 MeV leaves with the neutron and 3.5 MeV stays with the alpha particle. Heating is by coaxial helicity injection for formation followed by flux compression heating, and the blanket concept is helium-cooled pebble-bed blanket with beryllium multiplier around a close-fitting flux conserver. Sizing follows from a zero-dimensional energy balance evaluated in the accompanying computation: target gain 11.82, time-averaged fusion power 156 MW, driver electrical demand 31.43 MW, gross electric output 81.37 MW and net electric output 36 MW. The minimum gain for electrical break-even at the stated driver efficiency is 4.845. Each shot releases 260 MJ of fusion energy from 22 MJ of driver energy delivered to the target, repeated at 0.6 Hz. The plant verdict on the stated assumptions is net positive. Where a quantity depends on an assumption that experiments have not yet demonstrated at the required value, that dependence is stated numerically so that the design can be re-scored as measurements improve. This study is simulated and computed from stated assumptions; it is not a measurement, and no part of the plant has been built. SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED. Status: DESIGN BLUEPRINT — SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED — NOT BUILT. All numbers are simulated values from the source paper's computation, deposited with this blueprint as compute.py and results.json. AI-use disclosure: Dave, an AI research system, assisted with the computation and drafting under the author's direction; author of record William Alexander Aldred.