// nuclear & fusion
A dated log of fusion energy milestones since December 2022, each linked to a source. It covers lab records, ITER schedule changes and deliveries, U.S. regulatory decisions, power purchase agreements and company targets.
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28 entries from 28 sources. Checked for news weekly; last checked
This tracker logs dated milestones in fusion energy from December 2022 to October 2026. Fusion energy is the effort to generate power by joining light atomic nuclei. The log starts with the National Ignition Facility shot. The U.S. Department of Energy described it as the first controlled fusion experiment to yield more fusion energy than the laser energy that drove it.
An event gets an entry if it is one of five things:
Each entry cites a page that confirms its date and facts. The preferred page is the responsible organization's own announcement.
Company results and timelines are attributed to the company. Future targets are marked as scheduled. The power plants named here are planned or under construction. None is listed as operating.
Left out on purpose: private funding rounds, memorandums of understanding, supplier contracts, simulations, design studies and forecasts of when fusion power will be commercial. Records are reported as the operating institution described them, with later corrections noted. Devices measure different things, so the list is not a ranking.
Targets set by the organizations named. Dates like these often move.
Scheduled
The ITER Organization's timeline, as read in October 2026, lists start of research operation in 2034, full magnetic energy in 2036 and deuterium-tritium operation in 2039. The dates are from a baseline proposed in 2024 to replace a 2016 plan; the ITER Council approved its overall approach that year.
Scheduled
Helion began site work for Orion in July 2025 in Malaga, Washington. The land is leased from the Chelan County public utility district. Helion said then that it remained on track to provide energy from the plant to Microsoft by 2028 under their 2023 agreement. This is a company target, not a result.
Source: Helion Secures Land and Begins Building on the Site of World's First Fusion Power Plant, Helion
Scheduled
The company is building a tokamak in Devens, Massachusetts. Its SPARC page, as read on October 6, 2026, says the machine will reach net fusion energy in 2027. That means more energy out of the fusion reactions than the process takes in (Q>1). This is a company projection, not a result.
Source: SPARC: Proving commercial fusion energy is possible, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
General Fusion and the UK Atomic Energy Authority said the company's LM26 machine heated plasma electrons to 1.1 keV, or 12.6 million degrees Celsius, just before peak compression. The authority said it helped design the measuring system and co-wrote the paper. The paper has been submitted for peer review, so the result is not yet peer reviewed.
The ninth and last sector of ITER's vacuum vessel was delivered, one of five from Europe; Korea made the other four. ITER's director-general said every core tokamak component, including the magnet coils, vessel sectors and thermal shields, was now on site. In-vessel components are still to come.
Source: A remarkable chapter draws to a close, ITER Organization
Governor Gavin Newsom's office announced he had signed SB 925, by Senator Jerry McNerney. The office said the signed bills will create a strategic plan for developing fusion energy in California. The bill's title also names the state's energy commission and environmental review.
Nuclear Newswire said Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation issued the state's first license to operate a commercial fusion machine, announced August 31. It lets Type One Energy break ground at TVA's Bull Run site, where it expects full startup of a 400 MW pilot plant by 2034.
The ITER Organization said on July 29 that the expected installation of the final sector module had moved from December 2027 to mid-2027. A 30-hour lift ending July 28 had placed the sixth of nine modules in the tokamak pit. ITER called that almost six months ahead of schedule. The sectors still have to be joined.
Source: Two-thirds of ITER tokamak core now in place, ITER Organization
Shares started trading under the ticker GFUZ after a merger with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III. TechCrunch described General Fusion as the first publicly listed fusion power company. TechCrunch also reported that breakeven on the company's LM26 machine, once hoped for in 2026, had likely slipped to 2028 or later.
Source: Investors send General Fusion soaring in debut as first publicly traded fusion company, TechCrunch
Helion said the Washington Department of Health had issued a radioactive materials license and a radioactive air emissions license for its Orion site in Malaga, Washington. The company says this makes it the first to secure the regulatory licenses needed for a fusion power plant.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed amending 10 CFR Part 30 and related rules to license fusion machines under its byproduct material framework, with comments due May 27, 2026. It is a proposal, not a final rule. The notice cites a statutory deadline of December 31, 2027 for fusion rules.
Helion said Polaris, its seventh-generation prototype, produced measurable fusion from deuterium-tritium fuel and reached plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius. It called both results firsts for the private fusion industry. The results are company-reported.
The all-stock agreement would leave each company's shareholders with about 50% of the combined business on a fully diluted basis. The deal had not closed as of September 30, 2026, when the companies announced filing a Form S-4 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
TechCrunch reported that the Italian energy company agreed to buy more than $1 billion of electricity from ARC. It said ARC is a 400-megawatt plant planned near Richmond, Virginia, and expected to open in the early 2030s. Neither side gave the volume or timeline. Google agreed in June 2025 to buy half the output.
Source: Commonwealth Fusion Systems books a $1B+ power deal for its future fusion reactor, TechCrunch
Google announced an agreement to take 200 megawatts from the company's first commercial plant, planned for Chesterfield, Virginia. It said the agreement comes with an option on power from later plants. Google also announced a second investment in the company. It noted that success is not guaranteed.
The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics said its stellarator held a new peak triple product, a key fusion measure, for 43 seconds. It called this a record for long plasmas. A June 2025 update said unpublished JET results were comparable and lasted up to 60 seconds. It said that made the two joint leaders.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reports a yield of 8.6 megajoules, give or take 0.45, from 2.08 megajoules of laser energy, a target gain of 4.13. It is the highest yield among the shots the laboratory lists through June 20, 2026, when an 11th ignition produced 7.9 megajoules.
Source: Achieving Fusion Ignition, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
France's CEA said its WEST tokamak at Cadarache held a hydrogen plasma for more than 22 minutes. It said that was 25% longer than the tokamak duration record China's EAST had set a few weeks earlier. CEA said the plasma was held with 2 megawatts of injected heating power.
A Xinhua report carried by the Chinese Academy of Sciences said EAST held a steady-state high-confinement plasma for 1,066 seconds. The report said that was up from the 403 seconds the same machine recorded in 2023. EAST is run by the academy's Institute of Plasma Physics.
The company announced it would build ARC, a plant of about 400 megawatts, at the James River Industrial Center in Chesterfield County. It said the site is owned by Dominion Energy Virginia, which agreed to provide leasing rights. The company said it expects the plant to deliver power in the early 2030s.
Section 205 of the act, part of Public Law 118-67, added a definition of fusion machine to the Atomic Energy Act. It brought material made radioactive by such machines under the byproduct material definition. It also required an NRC report within a year on licensing mass-manufactured machines.
Source: Public Law 118-67, U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo)
ITER's director-general described a proposed baseline, then under review by ITER's members. The proposed dates were full magnetic energy in 2036 and deuterium-tritium operation in 2039, three and four years later than the 2016 plan. He put the added cost to the ITER Organization at 5 billion euros, also under review.
Source: New baseline to prioritize robust start to exploitation, ITER Organization
EUROfusion announced that the Joint European Torus released 69.26 megajoules of fusion energy in a single pulse, over six seconds, from 0.21 milligrams of fuel. The campaign began in September 2023, and JET ended scientific operations that December.
The European Union and Japan marked the start of operations of JT-60SA at a ceremony in Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture. The European Commission that day described the machine, built under an EU-Japan agreement, as the biggest and most advanced tokamak in the world.
Helion said it would supply Microsoft from its first fusion plant, with Constellation as power marketer. It said the plant was expected online by 2028 and was targeting 50 megawatts or more after a one-year ramp-up. Helion described the deal as the first fusion power purchase agreement.
Source: Helion announces world's first fusion energy purchase agreement with Microsoft, Helion
Nuclear Newswire reported that the commission said it would base fusion regulation on 10 CFR Part 30, not on Parts 50 and 52. Part 30 is its byproduct material licensing process, which also covers particle accelerators. Parts 50 and 52 are used for fission power reactors. Agreement States could then regulate fusion facilities.
The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics said its stellarator in Greifswald, Germany, sustained a plasma for 480 seconds. It reported an energy turnover of 1.3 gigajoules, 17 times the machine's earlier best of 75 megajoules. The institute said this followed an upgrade that added water cooling.
The U.S. Department of Energy said a laser shot on December 5 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory delivered 2.05 megajoules to a fuel target. It said the shot produced 3.15 megajoules of fusion energy. It called this the first controlled fusion experiment to reach scientific energy breakeven.
Source: DOE National Laboratory Makes History by Achieving Fusion Ignition, U.S. Department of Energy
The ninth and last sector of ITER's vacuum vessel reached the site in France on October 2, 2026. ITER says all components for its core machine are now on site, but years of assembly remain.
SMRs are fission reactors of up to 300 megawatts designed for factory assembly. North American regulators approved the first construction projects in 2025 and 2026; none is operating yet.
Fusion has reached ignition in the lab 11 times, but no fusion power plant is operating commercially. Company targets start in 2028; public roadmaps point to the mid-2030s or later.