Fuse Touts ‘Highest’ Neutron Yield by Any Fusion Company

A California-based fusion energy company announced it has reached an industry milestone. Fuse Energy Technologies Corp. on August 11 published a report noting the company set a record for the highest fusion neutron yield—1.27×10¹² in a single shot—by any commercial fusion company. The group said it is the first fusion company, either private or commercial, to publicly document a neutron yield in the 10¹² range. The company, founded by JC Btaiche, who serves as CEO, and whose advisory board includes leaders from the U.S. Dept. of Energy and Dept. of Defense, along with prominent technology companies, on Tuesday said that goal previously was only attained by U.S. national laboratories. Fuse has built the FAETON-I pilot machine, a 100 kV, 125 kJ Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) fusion generator. According to the company, the generator produces high-efficiency neutron bursts and unique radiation environments, which can be used to test defense and commercial aerospace hardware against hostile conditions on the path to commercializing fusion energy. Fuse officials said the company’s latest work “exceeds the fusion neutron yield per MJ [megajoule] of the world’s largest government plasma focus facilities.” It said the closest level is Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s MJOLNIR at 1.2×10¹²/1.3 MJ, vs. FAETON-X’s 1.27×10¹² from just 1 MJ (~40% more neutrons per megajoule). FAETON-X is the larger, megajoule-class-scaled technology designed for higher energy and current than the pilot FAETON-I. “Fusion has reached an inflection point, and private companies are now at the forefront of technology development,” said Btaiche. The CEO told POWER, “At Fuse, we’ve built a track record of designing, building and commissioning new technologies at a pace that was previously hard to imagine. With FAETON-X, we went from design to first shot in nine months, and from that first shot to breaking records in another nine months, all while completing the regulatory and safety approvals required in California. That pace gives us confidence in how quickly we can continue to advance the technology.” Btaiche continued, “We also care deeply about technical rigor and transparency regarding our progress. Many bold claims have been made in fusion, and rigorous peer review is how we build lasting credibility and sustain the industry’s momentum. FAETON-X represents another breakthrough for us, and our third technical paper on a new technology in three years. We’re excited to keep accelerating that pace and move fusion closer to commercialization.” Fuse noted that “in pulsed-power z-pinch devices, neutron yield scales as the fourth power of drive current—FAETON-X’s record current efficiency (4.5 MA/MJ, highest ever for a MJ-class plasma focus vs. 2.35–3.25 for all published peers, government included) means the steepest scaling curve in pulsed-power fusion now belongs to a private company.” The company said, “The record was set before full conditioning—scaling projects >2×10¹² D-D per shot, and ~5×10¹³ in D-T: another 40x on today’s record.” Read more about Fuse’s work, and its recent agreement with the Nevada National Security Site, in this article from Exchange Monitor, one of POWER’s sister publications (subscription required; free trial available). In a news release, Fuse said its milestone matters for commercial fusion energy because “Neutrons are the direct product of fusion reactions—neutron yield per unit of stored energy is the honest scoreboard for how much fusion a machine actually produces per dollar of capacitor bank. “Because yield scales as the fourth power of drive current, the efficiency race compounds brutally: a machine that gets 40% more current per megajoule doesn’t get 40% more fusion, it gets roughly 4x. FAETON-X holding the efficiency record means the steepest scaling curve in the field now belongs to a private company—one that designed, built, and fired the machine on venture timelines and a fraction of a national-lab budget. That’s the industry story: the record didn’t just change hands from government to private—the private machine did it with less energy, less money, and less time, and it isn’t fully conditioned yet.” POWER is at the forefront of coverage of the fusion energy sector. Go here to see our archived articles on the subject. To learn more about the companies leading the global race to commercialize fusion energy, read “Research Brings Results in Search for ‘Holy Grail’ of Clean Energy” in POWER’s February 2026 Special Report on groundbreaking power generation technologies. Fuse Energy is known for its flagship breakthrough, known as TITAN, which the company calls “the world’s first high-energy, high-power impedance‐matched Marx generator (IMG). TITAN is a critical advancement in pulsed power systems and Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) technology, delivering unmatched efficiency and performance for both commercial fusion energy and nuclear effects testing.” —Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.