In a development that could reshape our energy future, Canadian company General Fusion has reached an inspiring new milestone in the quest for clean, virtually limitless power. Their latest experiments have produced approximately 600 million fusion neutrons every second at peak performance—a world record for magnetized target fusion and a powerful validation that we're moving closer to making fusion energy a reality.

This isn't just an impressive number on paper. Fusion neutrons are the telltale signature that true fusion reactions are occurring, and they carry much of the energy released in the process. The achievement represents years of dedicated research finally bearing fruit, with results that have been independently verified and published in the prestigious journal Nuclear Fusion.

What makes this breakthrough particularly exciting is not just the record-setting neutron output, but how smoothly everything worked. The plasma—a cloud of gas heated to millions of degrees—remained stable throughout the compression process, behaving exactly as scientists hoped. The density increased to about 190 times its starting value while the magnetic field strengthened more than thirteenfold, yet the plasma held together beautifully, delivering repeatable fusion reactions.

Mike Donaldson, Senior Vice President for Technology Development at General Fusion, expressed the team's enthusiasm, noting they have "demonstrated the viability of a stable fusion process." This stability is crucial because it shows the approach can work reliably, not just once in a lucky experiment.

The technology behind this success is as elegant as it is powerful. General Fusion's magnetized target fusion approach uses a spinning layer of liquid metal surrounding the plasma, with pistons that drive inward to squeeze everything together—imagine gently pressing a water balloon from all sides, except the center reaches temperatures rivaling the core of a star. When conditions are just right, hydrogen nuclei collide and fuse, releasing tremendous energy.

These laboratory successes are already informing the next chapter of the story: the Lawson Machine 26, or LM26, a larger demonstration facility in Richmond, British Columbia. This impressive machine is designed to reach temperatures above one hundred million degrees and aims to achieve fusion conditions that could demonstrate scientific breakeven later this decade.

While fusion power plants won't appear on the grid tomorrow, the progress is undeniable and accelerating. General Fusion's roadmap takes them from first plasma through increasingly hotter temperatures toward fusion shots that approach breakeven—the point where the energy out equals or exceeds the energy in.

What's particularly heartening is that fusion research worldwide is shifting from proving basic concepts to tackling the practical engineering challenges of building actual power plants. These are exactly the kinds of problems that engineers excel at solving, and each success builds momentum for the next breakthrough.

The promise of fusion energy—abundant, clean power with minimal waste and no carbon emissions—has inspired scientists for decades. Thanks to determined teams like those at General Fusion, that dream is steadily becoming tomorrow's reality, one record-breaking experiment at a time.