VSC: A Zero-Dimensional Fusion Design Platform for Multiple Magnetic Configurations

Abstract

The VeloAlpha System Code (VSC) is a computational framework for zero-dimensional fusion power-balance studies across five magnetic-confinement configurations: tokamaks, magnetic mirrors, field-reversed configurations (FRCs), dipoles, and stellarators. A common power-balance formulation connects fusion production, charged-particle deposition, radiation, transport loss, external heating, and fusion gain, while each configuration retains its own geometry, profile weights, confinement model, and operating constraints. The same solver interface supports both single-point calculations and two-dimensional plasma operating contour (POPCON) scans, producing fusion and heating powers, gain, radiation and transport losses, geometry quantities, and configuration-specific validity indicators. VSC therefore makes it possible to study how assumptions about density, temperature, magnetic field, confinement, and geometry shape the accessible operating space of different fusion concepts within one traceable framework. By combining reduced-order physics models with a unified computational platform, VSC enables rapid assessment and comparative analysis of candidate fusion reactor concepts during the early design stage.