VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- General Fusion Inc. ("General Fusion" or the "Company"), a leader in the global race to commercialize fusion energy, and General Atomics Energy Group ("General Atomics") today announced collaborative work on advanced diagnostic systems that will prepare General Fusion to accurately measure high plasma temperatures up to and exceeding 10 keV, equivalent to 100 million degrees Celsius, during the second phase of the Company's ongoing Lawson Machine 26 ("LM26") program.

General Fusion previously announced its plans to go public through a business combination (the transactions contemplated by the business combination, collectively, the "Proposed Business Combination") with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ: SVAC) ("SVAC").

General Fusion's LM26 machine compresses plasma with a lithium liner and is designed to achieve key industry-recognized technical milestones to demonstrate the Company's Magnetized Target Fusion ("MTF") technology at a commercially relevant scale. LM26 is targeting plasma heating of 1 keV, equivalent to 10 million degrees Celsius; then 10 keV, equivalent to 100 million degrees Celsius; and ultimately the Lawson criterion.

General Atomics is advising on the diagnostic system required for the 10 keV milestone, including advanced tools to measure ion and electron temperature and density. In parallel, General Atomics is reviewing data from ongoing LM26 plasma compressions as General Fusion advances toward its 1 keV milestone, the next milestone on the path to 10 keV.

"Cutting-edge diagnostics are critical to our program, and we're thrilled to collaborate with General Atomics, a distinguished technology leader with deep expertise across highly specialized defense, aerospace and electromagnetic technologies, and, of course, fusion research through its operation of the U.S. Department of Energy's ("DOE") DIII-D National Fusion Facility," said General Fusion CEO Greg Twinney. "We're proud to work with them as our world-first, large-scale fusion demonstration machine targets major technical milestones using our practical MTF technology."

"Advanced diagnostics are essential to turning fusion experiments into validated engineering approaches that can support commercially relevant fusion systems," said Wayne Solomon, Vice President of Magnetic Fusion Energy for General Atomics. "General Atomics is proud to bring our decades worth of fusion expertise to this collaboration with General Fusion as the Company advances the LM26 program toward important plasma performance milestones. By connecting high-quality plasma measurements to design validation, this work reflects the kind of technical partnership needed to accelerate the path to practical fusion energy."

General Fusion previously collaborated with scientists at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, the largest magnetic fusion research device in the United States, under the DOE Frontiers of Science program.

Quick Facts: 

General Fusion's MTF is designed to solve significant barriers to commercializing fusion energy at a time when electricity demand is surging, and nations around the world are racing to commercialize fusion power.

As a technology, MTF aims to achieve fusion in a practical way, avoiding superconducting magnets and high-powered lasers, while enabling the use of existing materials for durable machines that would produce cost-effective energy.

In early 2025, General Fusion announced that it had designed, built, and begun operating its world-first LM26 fusion demonstration machine in under two years. LM26 is the first MTF demonstration machine to be built at a commercially relevant scale. It mechanically compresses plasma with a lithium liner at 50% commercial-scale diameter.

LM26 aims to achieve key fusion technical milestones: plasma heating to 1 keV (10 million degrees Celsius), then 10 keV (100 million degrees Celsius), and ultimately the Lawson criterion, the combination of fusion parameters that can produce net fusion energy in the plasma.

About General Fusion

General Fusion is pursuing a fast and practical approach to commercial fusion energy and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The Company was established in 2002 and is funded by a global syndicate of leading energy venture capital firms, industry leaders, and technology pioneers. Learn more at www.generalfusion.com. General Fusion announced in January 2026 that it plans to go public through the Proposed Business Combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ: SVAC).

About Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III

Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III is a part of a family of investment vehicles formed for the purpose of acquiring or merging with a business focused on the Power infrastructure and Decarbonization sectors. Over the past 5 years, Spring Valley has raised $920 million in four IPOs. Spring Valley I successfully completed its business combination with NuScale Power, a leading U.S. small modular reactor ("SMR") technology company, and Spring Valley II successfully completed its business combination with Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp., a next-generation nuclear energy company with rights to the largest open pit-constrained measured and indicated uranium deposit in the United States. SVAC maintains a corporate website at https://sv-ac.com.

Investor Relations Contact:

You can contact General Fusion's Investor Relations team by email at: investors@generalfusion.com.

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