Magnetized Target Fusion

Magnetized target fusion, or MTF, is a fusion power concept that combines features of magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion: like a magnetic confinement device, it uses magnetic fields to hold a lower-density fusion fuel while heating it into plasma, and like an inertial confinement device, it then triggers fusion by rapidly compressing that target to raise its density and temperature, though the density it reaches stays far below what inertial confinement fusion achieves. The related term magneto-inertial fusion, or MIF, covers a broader range of similar arrangements and in practice is often used interchangeably with MTF. Magnetized target fusion aims for an intermediate plasma density, around 10 to the 19th power particles per cubic centimeter, between magnetic and inertial confinement fusion, and needs confinement times thousands of times shorter than magnetic confinement fusion requires, which Los Alamos National Laboratory has called a potentially low cost path to fusion energy; earlier experimental devices following this approach included FRX-L and FRCHX, and the Canadian company General Fusion completed construction of its LM26 test reactor in Richmond, British Columbia in December 2024.