Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, and General Fusion have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to pursue a series of joint projects to accelerate the deployment of commercial fusion power in Canada. Fusion energy holds great potential as a clean and reliable form of energy for electricity grids, and the MOU will act as a framework for both companies to partner to advance fusion energy research and commercialization.

Under the terms of the agreement, CNL and General Fusion will collaborate on projects in key areas, including feasibility studies, regulatory framework, power plant siting and deployment, infrastructure design, and testing and operations support. Overall, the aim is to develop fusion energy research capabilities within CNL, to support the goal of constructing a potential General Fusion commercial power plant in Canada before 2030.

In addition to fusion and conventional nuclear energy, CNL’s research extends into the production of hydrogen, the development of advanced nuclear fuels, the integration of clean energy technologies, and research to enable the safe and reliable operation of today’s nuclear generating stations.

It is these capabilities that will be leveraged to support the commercialization of General Fusion’s Magnetized Target Fusion technology, which the company will showcase in its Fusion Demonstration Program being built out at the UK Atomic Energy Agency’s Culham Campus in England. The Fusion Demonstration Program will validate the performance and economics of General Fusion’s technology for the construction of a pilot commercial power plant in the early 2030s.

The MOU with General Fusion builds upon previous work that the two organizations conducted under CNL’s Canadian Nuclear Research Initiative (CNRI) last year. Leveraging CNL’s Tritium Facility, which is capable of handling materials required to conduct full-scale tests of tritium extraction technology, CNL and General Fusion partnered on the development of technologies to extract tritium for use in future fusion power plants.

General Fusion’s MTF technology is fueled by two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, the latter of which can be produced as part of the fusion process within the company’s unique liquid metal wall inside the fusion vessel.