by Morgan Sweeney
The world’s largest private fusion company has announced that it has chosen Chesterfield, Virginia, as the site of the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant, which will also be its first power plant.
Founded in Massachusetts as a result of decades of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Commonwealth Fusion Systems is at the forefront of efforts to “build a full-fledged fusion energy industry” that aims to help meet the energy demands of the future without relying on fossil fuels.
“ARC, the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant, will mark the start of the fusion age,” according to the company. “To the grid, it’ll look just like the 2,000 natural gas plants already built in the U.S. — except that ARC won’t release any carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.”
Fusion is the same energy that powers the sun and other stars. Nuclear power, which currently provides almost 20% of the country’s electricity generation and will play a big role in America’s transition away from fossil fuels, relies on nuclear fission, or the splitting of atomic nuclei, to produce energy.
Fusion occurs when two atomic nuclei are combined, producing significantly more energy without some dangers associated with nuclear fission plants.
“Unlike nuclear fission plants, fusion energy has no chance of runaway chain reactions or meltdowns, and there’s no long-lived or high-level nuclear waste,” according to Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
The company has already created the world’s “strongest high-temperature superconducting magnet,” integral to the development of commercial fusion energy. It is working on a smaller-scale test version of ARC called SPARC. SPARC will be the world’s first “commercially relevant fusion energy machine” to produce net energy, or “more energy from fusion than it needs to power the process.”
SPARC is expected to produce net power in 2027, and ARC “is expected to deliver power to the grid in the early 2030s.”
Local and state leaders have expressed excitement about what the announcement means for Virginia and, potentially, the world.
“I am thrilled to see a powerful step in fusion development undertaken in my beloved Virginia,” said Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., founder of the bipartisan Fusion Energy Caucus. “Bringing clean, safe fusion energy to the grid is a longstanding dream that could dramatically boost standards of living in America and around the world.”
“The future of clean energy is being built right here in Virginia. Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ decision to invest in Chesterfield County is a game-changer – not just for our economy, but for the world’s energy future,” said Speaker of the House of Delegates Don Scott, D-Portsmouth.
The company conducted a global search before landing on Chesterfield. If all goes as planned, ARC will generate about 400 megawatts of electricity, “enough energy to power large industrial sites or about 150,000 homes.”
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Morgan Sweeney is a staff writer covering Virginia and Maryland for The Center Square. Morgan was an active member of the journalism program as an undergraduate at Hillsdale College and previously freelanced for The Center Square.
Photo “Commonwealth Fusion Systems Technology” by Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
