In a bold step towards the future of energy, a location and date have been decided for the first commercial nuclear fusion power plant in America.
Secured by Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin with help from eastern seaboard utility company Dominion Energy, Chesterfield County, Virginia will welcome Commonwealth Fusion Systems experimental ARC plant on the site of a decommissioned coal power plant.
Founded on the campus of MIT in Boston, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is one of the world’s leaders in advancing the quest for commercial nuclear fusion energy—the ultimate energy source for humanity which replicates the process that forged our Sun to create emission-free, pollution-free energy.
Work will begin on the ARC plant next year, even before a smaller, prototype reactor is finished in Fort Devons Massachusetts.
“Dominion will provide us with development and technical expertise while we’ll provide them with knowledge about how to build and operate fusion power plants,” said CFS chief executive officer Bob Mumgaard.
Governor Youngkin said Virginia managed to attract CFS over 100 other global locations. CFS, which has received $2 billion in funding from an estimated 60 private investors that include Google and Eni, the Italian oil and gas giant, hasn’t suggested a price for the ARC plant, but Engineering News Record quoted outlets putting the figure around $3 billion; significantly less than the ITER fusion reactor in Europe.
CFS said the development of northern Virginia as an artificial intelligence and data center hub of the East Coast attracted them to the Chesterfield site. The first component of the ARC plant will be the fusion complex, and is slated to be finished in 2026.
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The ARC plant will use a tokamak: a doughnut-shaped chamber enclosed by superconducting magnets that will heat hydrogen isotopes to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit, causing them to form a plasma, fuse, and release energy as a result. No nuclear waste is produced through the method, and the hydrogen isotopes are either isolated from seawater or produced as a byproduct of the fusion process.
One single plant is claimed by CFS to be capable of generating 400 megawatts of electricity, and Youngkin says it will bring billions of economic development.
The ‘early 2030s’ is predicted to see the whole of the plant operational and selling clean electricity to local partners.
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