Our Fusion Technology
20+ Years of Results
For more than two decades, General Fusion has built and operated test beds, prototypes, and large-scale machines to advance Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF).
Today, General Fusion is one of four companies worldwide to have achieved and published meaningful fusion results on the path to the Lawson criterion, supported by more than 35 peer-reviewed publications and 210 issued and pending patents.
In 2002, Canadian physicist Dr. Michel Laberge first started General Fusion on Bowen Island in British Columbia. He set out to develop a commercially viable approach to fusion energy using MTF technology.
Dr. Laberge built a small-scale prototype demonstrating shockwave compression of plasma to generate neutrons. It proved that the prototype successfully created a fusion reaction using our unique and practical MTF approach.
Parts of the prototype are currently on display at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.
Our first plasma injector was designed, built, and commissioned over the course of 12 months.
We were the first in the world to design, build, and commission a compact toroid plasma injector at power plant scale.
Our liquid metal compression tests validated the engineering of our system and the synchronization of pistons. The tests confirmed a key benefit of our MTF approach — the liquid metal liner — for overcoming one of the barriers to commercial fusion.
We achieved sufficient plasma performance to heat when compressed.
Pictured is a graph showing the aggregate of a series of uncompressed shots, providing critical insight into ion dynamics. The neutron rate is decaying exponentially from the post-formation peak.
During compression, the neutron rate increases significantly compared to the uncompressed case.
Our plasma compression field tests substantiated our plasma stability models and showed increased neutron yield under compression, demonstrating the viability of a stable fusion process using our MTF approach.
We brought together plasma and liquid lithium, integrating two key components of our technology, and demonstrated that our plasma lifetime is maintained within the liquid metal wall cavity. The wall is designed to absorb neutrons, protect the machine from fusion damage, breed fuel, and provide efficient heat transfer.
Our compression test bed successfully compressed a liquid cavity with symmetry and controlled shape sufficient to achieve fusion conditions. This milestone marked another significant step toward our goal of commercializing fusion energy using our MTF technology.
Our compression prototype achieved the smooth, rapid, and symmetric compression of a liquid cavity that is key to the design of a commercial MTF power plant.
Additionally, General Fusion successfully created magnetized plasmas that achieved energy confinement times exceeding 10 milliseconds. The published energy confinement time results were achieved on General Fusion’s PI3 plasma injector. The 10-millisecond energy confinement time is the duration required to compress plasmas in LM26 to reach key temperature thresholds of 1 keV and 10 keV and, ultimately, achieve 100% Lawson criterion.
Launched in 2023, our large-scale LM26 fusion demonstration machine was designed, built, and assembled in under two years. Today, LM26 is operating and compressing plasmas on a commercially relevant scale. It is designed to achieve key industry-recognized technical milestones industry: 1 keV (10 million degrees Celsius), 10 keV (100 million degrees Celsius), and 100% Lawson criterion.