General Fusion says plasma compression demonstration exceeded 1 keV

General Fusion says its LM26 demonstration machine heated plasma to more than 12 million degrees Celsius using a metal wall to compress it over milliseconds. In paid news commentary prepared under a marketing agreement with the company, it claimed the first achievement of 1 keV using practical low-speed compression. Thomson scattering measurements taken with the UK Atomic Energy Authority recorded approximately 1.1 keV before peak compression; a separate instrument recorded approximately 1.2 keV at the peak. Papers describing the measurements have been submitted for peer review. The result meets LM26's first technical milestone. Upgrades are underway toward 10 keV, followed by a target combining temperature, density and confinement time sufficient for net fusion energy in the plasma.