UKAEA and General Fusion Achieve Magnetised Target Fusion Milestone
World-first fusion result, exceeding 12 million degrees Celsius, co-published by UKAEA, marks significant step for clean energy.
By The SME Chronicle Newsroom
••3 min read
AI
Abstract representation of fusion energy plasma.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and General Fusion have announced a significant milestone in Magnetised Target Fusion (MTF), achieving electron temperatures exceeding 12 million degrees Celsius.
General Fusion Group Ltd has achieved a historic compressional plasma heating result with its large-scale Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) demonstration. Using Magnetised Target Fusion (MTF), the company reached electron temperatures exceeding 12 million degrees Celsius (more than 1 keV). The results were co-published by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the UK’s national fusion laboratory, and measured using Thomson scattering methods.
This achievement marks a measurable step forward for General Fusion's MTF approach in its aim to deliver baseload, economical clean power from fusion energy. The 1.1 keV electron heating result was detailed in a technical paper co-authored by UKAEA.
General Fusion's MTF technology aims to achieve fusion economically, using a liquid metal wall that allows for the use of existing materials and durable machines, avoiding superconducting magnets and high-powered lasers. The LM26 programme is designed to reach key technical milestones towards a first-of-a-kind fusion plant within the next decade. LM26 is the first fusion machine globally to achieve 1 keV with low-speed compression.
Upgrades to the LM26 machine are underway to support higher plasma compression ratios, with the next targeted milestone being 10 keV. The programme aims to de-risk the path to practical fusion power, with the company targeting operation of a first-of-a-kind plant around 2035.
The findings were enabled by UKAEA's expertise in plasma diagnostics, drawing on decades of experience from facilities like JET and MAST Upgrade. The Thomson scattering technique, used to measure plasma temperature, was pioneered in collaboration with Russian researchers in 1969 by a UK team.
Measuring plasma conditions on LM26 presented challenges due to the plasma being enclosed within a metal liner and compressed to a small volume. Specialists from UKAEA and General Fusion jointly designed and commissioned a Thomson scattering system. A key component was a polychromator designed and built by UKAEA at its Diagnostic Innovation Centre of Excellence (DICE) facility.
General Fusion has been developing its technology for over two decades, with support from the Government of Canada and collaborations with organisations like UKAEA and the General Atomics Energy Group.
“
"General Fusion has a two-decade track record of achieving industry-first milestones in Magnetized Target Fusion supported by a substantial body of peer-reviewed scientific literature. We built LM26 to achieve important technical milestones that will help get us to a first-of-a-kind plant in the next decade, and step-by-step we are advancing on this path. Congratulations to our incredible team and thank you to UKAEA for our longstanding collaboration. Together, we’ve achieved an industry-defining result on the path to commercializing cost-effective, practical fusion energy."
“
"Achieving a plasma electron temperature of over 1 keV marks an important milestone for General Fusion since achieving hot electrons is a necessary step for proving fusion confinement concepts. This achievement reflects the tangible progress being made by General Fusion and others across a diverse set of fusion approaches in the private sector, while the collaboration with UKAEA, contributing its specialist expertise, highlights the value of robust public-private partnerships in broadly advancing fusion and sharing scientific results. It also continues a great tradition of international scientific collaboration: in 1969, a UK team used the then-new laser-based Thomson scattering technique to verify 1 keV electrons in a Russian tokamak, helping to establish what became the standard magnetic confinement concept. We now look forward to the outcome of the formal peer review process and the publication of the paper in Review of Scientific Instruments."
