General Fusion
Corporate brand
UnclaimedGeneral Fusion is a Canadian fusion-energy company developing magnetized target fusion technology.
Last updated November 4, 2026
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Overview
General Fusion Inc. is a Canadian fusion-energy company headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia. Founded in 2002 by physicist Michel Laberge, it is developing a form of magnetized target fusion (MTF), an approach intended to combine magnetic confinement with mechanically driven compression. The company’s proposed system injects a compact, magnetized plasma into a cavity formed in rapidly circulating liquid metal. A large array of pistons or another pulsed compression system then collapses the cavity, increasing the plasma’s density and temperature until fusion conditions are reached. The liquid metal is intended to perform several functions at once: it transmits the compression wave, absorbs energy from fusion neutrons, protects structural materials from neutron damage, and, when lithium is used, supports tritium breeding. In a future power plant, heat extracted from the liquid metal would be transferred to a steam cycle for electricity generation. General Fusion’s work has progressed through successive plasma injectors, compression experiments, and engineering testbeds. The company produced a fusion reaction in an early MTF prototype in 2005, demonstrated an at-scale magnetically confined plasma injector in 2010, and reported its first compressive heating of magnetized plasma in 2011. A 2013 proof-of-concept compression system used fourteen full-size pneumatic pistons around a spherical chamber. Although the experiment demonstrated synchronized mechanical impacts and a converging compression wave, the liquid-metal vortex was disrupted rather than compressed into the desired stable form. The company subsequently continued developing plasma injectors, liquid-metal flow systems, compression drivers, and associated reactor technologies. By the middle of the 2010s, General Fusion had built more than a dozen injector systems, including the PI series and smaller MRT, PROSPECTOR, and SPECTOR platforms. It reported plasma lifetimes reaching milliseconds and electron temperatures above 400 electronvolts in some experiments. Around 2017, the company also conducted destructive plasma-compression tests using chemically driven aluminum liners. In 2019 it reported successful confinement of plasma within a liquid-metal cavity, and from 2019 to 2021 it reported improvements in plasma performance and progress toward controlled, symmetrical cavity compression. By 2022, the company said it had completed more than 200,000 plasma shots, accumulated a portfolio of granted and pending patents, and demonstrated extended PI3 plasma confinement without active magnetic stabilization, auxiliary heating, or a conventional divertor. The company’s most ambitious deployment plan was a Fusion Demonstration Program in Oxfordshire, England, developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom’s public-sector fusion ecosystem at Culham. The proposed facility was described as approximately 70% of commercial scale and was intended to assemble and test the company’s principal subsystems. In 2023, General Fusion changed direction, putting the United Kingdom project on hold and prioritizing a smaller Canadian machine called Lawson Machine 26, or LM26. The new program was designed to pursue fusion temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius and move toward a scientific-breakeven-equivalent demonstration. General Fusion remains a private company and has depended on venture and strategic financing to fund its research and engineering program. Public descriptions of its workforce and financing have varied over time. The company has reduced staffing during periods of financial pressure, including a reported workforce reduction in 2025 and a corresponding reduction in LM26 activity. Its long-term commercial proposition remains prospective: the technology must still demonstrate repeatable high-performance plasma compression, reliable pulsed operation, tritium handling, materials durability, net energy production, and an economically viable power cycle. General Fusion’s brand is therefore associated primarily with advanced fusion research, magnetized target fusion, and the development of alternative pathways to commercial fusion power rather than with an operating energy product.
History
General Fusion was established in 2002 by Michel Laberge, a physicist and former senior physicist and principal engineer at Creo Products in Vancouver. The company adopted magnetized target fusion as its central technical direction. MTF seeks to create a magnetically confined plasma and then compress it rapidly, potentially reducing the need for the large continuous magnets and extreme plasma-facing conditions associated with some conventional fusion concepts. The company produced a fusion reaction in its first MTF prototype in 2005. In 2010 it reported an at-scale plasma injector containing magnetically confined plasma, followed in 2011 by demonstrations of compressive heating. In 2013, it built a proof-of-concept compression system with fourteen pneumatic pistons positioned around a spherical chamber approximately one metre in diameter. The pistons generated synchronized acoustic impacts intended to create a converging wave in a liquid-metal vortex. The system achieved tightly synchronized impacts, but the liquid-metal wall broke into spray after the pressure wave arrived, exposing an important engineering challenge for the concept. From the company’s formation through 2016, General Fusion developed more than a dozen plasma injectors. The PI systems combined plasma formation and magnetic acceleration, while the MRT, PROSPECTOR, and SPECTOR families explored smaller and more specialized injector configurations. General Fusion reported SPECTOR plasma lifetimes of up to approximately two milliseconds and electron temperatures above 400 electronvolts. During the same period, it developed subsystems intended for a future reactor, including injectors, compression drivers, liquid-metal vortex technology, and lithium-related systems. Patents associated with the company’s work covered reactor designs and enabling technologies such as plasma accelerators, liquid-metal vortex formation, and lithium evaporation. Around 2017, the company conducted Plasma Compression Small experiments using chemically driven aluminum liners to compress compact toroid plasmas. These tests were destructive and were performed at remote outdoor locations because of their chemical drivers. The PI3 injector subsequently became a major experimental platform; by late 2017, the company described it as substantially more powerful than its predecessor and reported stable plasma compression. In 2019, General Fusion reported that it had confined plasma within a liquid-metal cavity. It continued improving plasma and compression performance through 2021 and reported controlled, symmetrical compression of a water cavity as a proxy for liquid-metal behavior. General Fusion’s proposed reactor uses a spherical or near-spherical chamber filled with circulating liquid metal. Tangential pumping establishes a vortex with a central cavity. A magnetized deuterium-tritium plasma pulse is injected into the cavity, after which pistons or another pulsed driver compress the liquid metal and the plasma. Fusion energy would be transferred into the liquid metal, while lithium in the working fluid could help breed tritium. The heated fluid would ultimately drive a conventional thermal power cycle. The liquid-metal liner is also intended to shield structural components from energetic fusion neutrons. In 2021, the company announced a United Kingdom Fusion Demonstration Program at Culham in Oxfordshire. The proposed machine was approximately 70% of commercial scale and was intended to operate at a much lower pulse rate than a commercial plant, giving engineers more time to restore vacuum and service the system between shots. The program used a different configuration from the company’s envisioned commercial plant, including a liquid-lithium compression medium and a gas-driven compression system. In 2023, General Fusion deferred the United Kingdom project and announced LM26 at its Canadian headquarters. LM26 uses a compact cylindrical chamber, a solid lithium liner, pulsed toroidal coils, and a plasma injector. The company stated that it aimed to exceed 100 million degrees Celsius and progress toward scientific-breakeven-equivalent performance. In 2022, General Fusion reported more than 200,000 plasma shots, more than 150 granted or pending patents, and extended PI3 confinement at temperatures of approximately 250 electronvolts. It also reported more than 1,000 shots on a one-tenth-scale water compression testbed. The company later reported symmetrical compression of a solid lithium ring and began operating an LM26 compression prototype. Despite these developments, the company has continued to face the broader technical and financial risks common to private fusion ventures. Staffing was reduced in 2023 and again in 2025, when the company cited urgent financing constraints and curtailed LM26 activity. General Fusion has remained privately held while exploring further financing and, according to its 2026 announcement, a potential SPAC transaction.
- 2025
Financing constraint affects operations
[1]The company announced major layoffs and reduced LM26 operations because of an urgent financing constraint.
- 2023
LM26 announced
[1]General Fusion redirected its near-term demonstration strategy toward Lawson Machine 26 in Canada.
- 2022
Experimental program expands
[1]The company reported more than 200,000 plasma shots, extensive patent activity, and progress on PI3 and compression testbeds.
- 2021
United Kingdom demonstration plant announced
[1]The company announced plans for a large demonstration facility in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
- 2019
Plasma confined in liquid-metal cavity
[1]General Fusion reported successful confinement of plasma within its liquid-metal cavity.
- 2017
PI3 injector advances
[1]The PI3 injector was reported to have substantially increased power and stable plasma compression.
- 2013
Spherical compression proof of concept
[1]A fourteen-piston pneumatic system demonstrated synchronized mechanical compression, while also revealing liquid-metal-vortex stability challenges.
- 2011
Compressive heating demonstrated
[1]The company reported its first demonstration of compressive heating of magnetized plasma.
- 2010
At-scale plasma injector
[1]General Fusion reported its first at-scale injector with magnetically confined plasma.
- 2005
First reported fusion reaction
[1]The company reported producing a fusion reaction in its first MTF prototype.
Products and positioning
A private fusion-technology developer pursuing an alternative to conventional tokamaks through mechanically compressed magnetized plasma and liquid-metal reactor systems.
Fusion demonstration machine · 2023
Lawson Machine 26 (LM26)
LM26 is General Fusion’s Canadian demonstration-machine program announced in 2023. Its configuration uses a Marshall-gun plasma injector, a cylindrical vacuum vessel, a solid lithium liner, and pulsed toroidal coils that initiate liner compression. The company designed it to pursue fusion conditions above 100 million degrees Celsius and to advance toward scientific-breakeven-equivalent performance. Prototype 0 was developed as a compression testbed for the LM26 approach.
Plasma injector
PI-series plasma injectors
The PI family consists of large, two-stage plasma injectors that form and magnetically accelerate compact toroid plasmas for subsequent compression experiments. PI3 became a principal experimental platform and was reported to achieve substantially higher power and longer confinement than earlier systems. General Fusion has used the series to study plasma formation, acceleration, compression, stability, and the interface between injector operation and liquid-metal target chambers.
Plasma injector
SPECTOR
SPECTOR is one of General Fusion’s smaller, single-stage injector generations. The company reported plasma lifetimes of up to approximately two milliseconds and electron temperatures above 400 electronvolts in experiments using this platform. The system formed compact toroid plasmas and supported the company’s broader effort to improve repeatability and performance before integrating injectors with full compression systems.
Fusion demonstration plant · 2021
Fusion Demonstration Program
The Fusion Demonstration Program was a proposed approximately 70%-scale plant planned for Oxfordshire, England. It was intended to integrate General Fusion’s principal plasma, liquid-metal, and compression subsystems, but at a much slower pulse rate than a commercial plant. The program was placed on hold in 2023 as the company redirected resources to LM26 in Canada.
Brand decisions
2026
Announce proposed SPAC transactionM&ABackground
The private company sought a potential route to public-market financing.
Action taken
General Fusion announced plans to become a public company through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.
Aftermath
The proposed transaction was expected to require further completion steps and approvals; its completion was not established in the supplied material.
2025
Reduce workforce and LM26 activityStrategyBackground
General Fusion said it faced an unexpected and urgent financing constraint.
Action taken
The company announced layoffs affecting approximately 25% of its workforce and reduced operation of LM26.
Aftermath
The reductions indicated a slower near-term development pace while the company addressed financing needs.
2023
Redirect near-term demonstration work to LM26StrategyBackground
The planned United Kingdom demonstration plant required a large, complex integration program, while the company sought a nearer-term machine capable of testing key fusion and compression milestones.
Action taken
General Fusion put the United Kingdom Fusion Demonstration Program on hold and announced Lawson Machine 26 at its Canadian headquarters.
Aftermath
The company concentrated its publicly described near-term program on LM26 and its associated compression testbeds.
Recent events
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