Richmond’s General Fusion has launched a new project in collaboration with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) to advance the design of its commercial fusion power plant.
Delivered through CNL’s Canadian Nuclear Research Initiative (CNRI) program, the project will examine and propose the most efficient and cost-effective designs to integrate the fusion machine, balance of plant, and power conversion systems in a power plant using General Fusion’s practical Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology.
General Fusion is currently working to build a first-of-a-kind commercial pilot plant to provide electricity from clean fusion energy to the grid by the early to mid-2030s.
CNL has previously supported this project through its CNRI program, providing General Fusion with recommendations related to tritium breeding technologies and tritium management facilities, which could be coupled with the company’s commercial power plant.
“Canada has a strong fusion ecosystem, with General Fusion leading the private sector and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories providing world-class fusion R&D,” said Greg Twinney, CEO, General Fusion.
“Our LM26 fusion demonstration machine is progressing rapidly towards game-changing technical milestones in the next two years. At the same time, we’re preparing to deploy clean fusion power to the grid with our practical approach, including advancing our commercial power plant design with top experts and renowned partners like CNL.”
Today, at its Canadian labs, General Fusion is building Lawson Machine 26 (LM26).
Designed to reach fusion conditions of over 100 million degrees Celsius by 2025 and progress towards scientific breakeven equivalent by 2026, LM26 will fast-track General Fusion’s technical progress to provide commercial fusion energy to the grid in the next decade.
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