Virginia to host world’s first fusion power plant • Virginia Mercury

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Virginia may soon make history as the home of the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant, state officials and private sector leaders announced Tuesday.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a fusion power company founded in 2018 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, unveiled plans to build the groundbreaking facility on a 100-acre site in the James River Industrial Park in Chesterfield County. The plant, which is expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 150,000 homes – could be operational by the early 2030s.

“Commonwealth Fusion Systems plans to build the world’s first commercial grid-scale fusion power plant in the world, full stop, and it will be right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin at a company presentation at Richmond’s. The Patrick Henry Building.

Unlike traditional nuclear power plants that rely on fission, fusion replicates the sun’s energy-producing process and offers a cleaner and more sustainable energy source. The project, which would occupy about 25 acres of the site, signals Virginia’s growing role in shaping future energy solutions.

The announcement comes as Virginia’s energy needs increase, driven by the rapid growth of data centers that power large technology operations. These facilities use enormous amounts of electricity and water to process and cool computer systems.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks during an announcement with Commonwealth Fusion Systems on Tuesday. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)

A report by the nonpartisan Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission (JLARC) released last week found that energy demand from data centers could triple from about 10,000 megawatts today to about 30,000 megawatts by 2040 if infrastructure, like new transmission lines, were already in place.

Virginia’s two largest utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power Company, are already exploring small modular nuclear reactors to meet growing energy needs, with Dominion also investing in offshore wind, solar and natural gas.

Fusion power offers another path to clean energy and avoids emissions that scientists link to climate change and its increasingly intense and frequent storms.

Fusion technology works by combining hydrogen isotopes – deuterium extracted from water and tritium from lithium – under extreme heat and pressure, using powerful magnets to fuse the elements together. The process generates heat, which boils water to create steam that rotates a turbine and produces electricity. The byproduct is helium.

“Our customers’ growing need for reliable, coal-free power benefits from as diverse a menu of power generation options as possible, and in that spirit, we are pleased to assist CFS in their efforts,” Dominion Energy Virginia President Edward H. Baine said in a statement.

CFS chose the Chesterfield site after conducting a global search. The company will lease the land from Dominion Energy.

To secure the project, Virginia offered $1 million from the Virginia Energy Clean Energy Innovation Bank, $1 million from Chesterfield County and a sales and use tax exemption for the facility’s equipment. The company has also received funding from the US Department of Energy. Youngkin said the project would bring “billions” in economic development and create “hundreds” of jobs.

CFS is currently building its SPARC demonstration plant in Massachusetts, a project that will pave the way for the ARC technology planned for Chesterfield. While Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved a major milestone in 2022 by demonstrating fusion using lasers, CFS is taking a different approach. Their technology relies on a doughnut-shaped device called a tokamak to confine and fuse molecules.

A rendering of the ARC donut-shaped tokamak technology. (Courtesy of Commonwealth Fusion Systems)

“You don’t need a pipeline to bring the fuel in or a chimney for the exhaust,” said CFS co-founder and CEO Bob Mumgaard.

Unlike fission, which splits heavy atoms like uranium to produce energy — leaving behind radioactive waste — fusion creates energy by fusing light atoms together, explained Alex Creely, CFS director of tokamak operations.

“One of the great advantages of fusion is that it doesn’t produce any long-lived waste material, and there’s no risk of some sort of meltdown,” Creely said. “It’s a very safe source of energy — something you can live right next to and feel very comfortable with.”

Part. Rep. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, said in a statement Tuesday that he will introduce legislation to classify fusion as a carbon-free energy source under the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a 2020 law aimed at decarbonizing the state’s power grid. If passed, fusion-generated power would count toward meeting the law’s clean energy requirements.

“Since VCEA’s transition, we have succeeded in driving energy innovation in the commonwealth, and today marks another important step in what has been a remarkably successful effort – a step that would not have been possible had Virginia rejected or abandoned the opportunity and the responsibility it took to lead in clean energy,” Sullivan said.

Youngkin emphasized that the project will be funded solely by CFS, with no cost passed on to Dominion Energy taxpayers. The facility will operate as an independent power producer, selling its electricity to specific customers through power purchase agreements or directly into the regional PJM Interconnection market.

“It’s a reasonable hypothesis that data center growth in Virginia would very much like to take the power generated at this facility,” Youngkin said.

Another rendering of the Commonwealth Fusion Systems proposal for Chesterfield County. (Courtesy of Commonwealth Fusion Systems)

Preston Bryant, senior vice president at McGuireWoods Consulting, which was involved in the site selection process, said Virginia was chosen in part because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled months ago that fusion technology does not require a federal license like fission and can instead be approved at the state level .

The project will still need several state permits, including a radioactive materials license from the Virginia Department of Health, and a certificate of convenience and public necessity from the State Corporation Commission.

Kristen Cullen, vice president of global policy and public affairs at CFS, said additional approvals could include an air permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for emergency backup generators and potentially a stormwater discharge permit, depending on the site’s design.

Bryant noted that it was “a coincidence” that the chosen site was originally chosen by Dominion for a proposed natural gas plant before the utility moved that project to the nearby, formerly coal-fired Chesterfield Power Station.

The announcement followed discussions with local environmental groups, which expressed some support for the project but also raised questions about its impact.

“Given the increasing energy demand in Virginia driven by data centers and most people in the environmental world not supporting more gas infrastructure, SMRs or hydrogen energy, this seems like a promising solution if and when it actually comes online,” said Melissa Thomas, senior organizer with Mothers out Front, a climate advocacy group.

Thomas also raised questions about whether the facility’s backup power would rely on gas-powered systems or electric alternatives.

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