Scaling magnetized target fusion (MTF) with liquid metal liners
General Fusion's Lawson Machine 26 is the world's first MTF demonstration machine built at 50 percent of commercial-scale diameter.
Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) deliberately avoids the massive superconducting magnets of tokamaks by mechanically compressing a magnetized plasma. General Fusion's architecture utilizes a liquid lithium liner that simultaneously compresses the plasma to fusion conditions, shields the outer vessel from neutron damage, and breeds tritium fuel.
The company's Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) is the world's first MTF demonstration machine built at 50 percent of commercial-scale diameter. Operating at their Vancouver headquarters, LM26 is targeting key technical milestones, including plasma heating to 10 keV (100 million degrees Celsius), ahead of a planned public listing via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).
The liquid-metal liner approach is distinct from solid-piston MTF concepts in that it avoids precision-machined mechanical interfaces, replacing them with a fluid that conforms to any plasma shape. The trade-off is the complexity of lithium purification and the magnetohydrodynamic instabilities that can form at the plasma-lithium interface.
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