Magnetized-target fusion plasma heated past 1 keV

General Fusion LM26, co-published with UKAEA — General Fusion's LM26 compressed a magnetized plasma to electron temperatures above 1 keV (about 12 million °C), with meaningful ion heating, reported on 8 Oct 2026 and co-published by the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Temperature was measured with Thomson scattering and absolute extreme-ultraviolet diagnostics. It follows the 0.72 keV compression result in June and is the first of three LM26 technical milestones; the next is 10 keV. The UKAEA co-publication puts a national fusion laboratory's name on the measurement, which is more than a company figure alone, but the peer-reviewed paper is still pending. 1 keV is far below the temperatures tokamaks routinely reach; the result matters for whether this cheaper, magnet-light approach can heat plasma by compression at all.