General Fusion (GF) is a private fusion developer based in Canada. GF has just announced plans for a new Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) machine. The MTF is designed to achieve fusion conditions of over one hundred million degrees Celsius by 2025. GF hopes to reach breakeven by 2026.
The MTF is also known as the Lawson Machine 26 (LM26). The demonstration is designed to be cost-efficient and produce results quickly using General Fusion’s unique approach to fusion. The LM26 will be constructed at GF’s Richmond, British Columbia headquarters. The LM26 will validate GF’s ability to symmetrically compress magnetized plasmas in a repeatable manner and achieve fusion conditions at scale.
The LM26 will integrate General Fusion’s existing operational plasma injector (PI3) with a new lithium liner compression system. The PI3 was preceded by twenty four predecessor prototypes and more than two hundred thousand plasma experiments. GF said that the PI3 is one of the world’s biggest and most powerful operational plasma injectors. The PI3 has already demonstrated plasma temperatures of five million degrees and ten millisecond self-sustaining energy confinement times. Both of these are critical steppingstones to achieving the LM26’s target of fusion conditions in 2025. The LM26’s plasmas will be about fifty percent of the scale of a commercial fusion reactor.
Over the next two years, GF will collaborate with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to validate the data acquired from the LN26 and incorporate it into the design of GF’s commercial-scale demonstration in the U.K.
GF said that “This machine represents a significant new pillar to accelerate and de-risk General Fusion's Demonstration Program, designed to leverage the company's recent technological advancements and provide electricity to the grid with commercial fusion energy by the early to mid-2030s.”
Greg Twinney is the CEO of General Fusion. “Our updated three-year Fusion Demonstration Program puts us on the best path forward to commercialize our technology by the 2030s. We're harnessing our team's existing strengths right here in Canada and delivering high-value, industry-leading technical milestones in the near term.”
GF’s MTF approach involves injecting hydrogen plasma into a liquid metal sphere. The plasma is then compressed and heated so that fusion takes place. The heat from the fusion of the hydrogen atoms is transferred into the liquid metal. This allows fusion conditions to be created in short pulses rather than creating a sustained reaction. This approach “avoids the pitfalls of other approaches that require expensive superconducting magnets or high-powered lasers,” according to GF.
GF intends to construct its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) at the UKAEA's Culham Campus near Oxford, England. The plant will be utilized to prove the viability of the MTF technology. It will be a seventy percent scaled version of the commercial pilot plant. But, the plant will not be used to produce power. The FDP will cycle one plasma pulse per day. It will utilize deuterium fuel. The commercial pilot plant will use deuterium-tritium fuel. It will cycle up to one plasma pulse per second. The FDP is expected to be commissioned in 2026 and to go into operation by early 2027.
GF has completed the first close of its Series F funding for a combined total of twenty-five million dollars. The round was anchored by existing investors including BDC Capital and GIC. It also includes new grant funding from the Government of British Columbia. This builds upon the Canadian government’s ongoing support through the Strategic Innovation Fund.