Fusion starts with making a stable plasma. To produce energy from fusion, we must control the plasma fuel’s temperature, density, and duration.
General Fusion has built and tested 24 different Plasma Injector systems through its testing program, operating multiple systems at the same time and firing up to 100 plasma tests per day with more than 200,000 tests to date.
In 2018, General Fusion commissioned the largest and most powerful plasma injector in the world – PI3 – which creates plasmas at the scale required for the Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP).
General Fusion also added a new plasma injector – SLiC – which creates plasma within a liquid metal cavity. The liquid metal makes General Fusion’s approach different than others. In a Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) power plant, the liquid metal will capture the energy from the fusion reaction. The metal will go through a heat exchanger to produce steam, which will then drive a turbine to create electricity. In SLiC, we bring together the plasma and the liquid metal, integrating two key components of our technology.
Our FDP is scheduled to be operational in approximately five years. We are targeting the early 2030s to bring practical fusion energy onto the world’s energy systems.