Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks during an announcement with Commonwealth Fusion Systems Tuesday. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
By Charlie Paulin
(VM) – Virginia could 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, Mass., unveiled plans to build the groundbreaking facility on a 100-acre site at James River Industrial Park in Chesterfield County. The plant, expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 150,000 homes — could be operational by the early 2030s.
“Commonwealth Fusion Systems plans on building the world’s first grid scale commercial fusion power plant in the world, full stop, and it’s going to be right here in the commonwealth of Virginia,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said at a presentation of the undertaking at Richmond’s Patrick Henry Building.
Unlike traditional nuclear power plants that rely on fission, fusion replicates the energy-producing process of the sun, offering a cleaner and more sustainable power 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 are surging, driven by the rapid growth of data centers that power big tech operations. These facilities consume enormous amounts of electricity and water to process and cool computer systems.
A report from 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 available.
Virginia’s two largest utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power Company, are already exploring small modular nuclear reactors to meet rising energy demands, with Dominion also investing in offshore wind, solar and natural gas.
Fusion power offers another path to clean energy, avoiding 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. The process generates heat, which boils water to create steam that spins a turbine, producing electricity. The byproduct is helium.
“Our customers’ growing needs for reliable, carbon-free power benefits from as diverse a menu of power generation options as possible, and in that spirit, we are delighted to assist CFS in their efforts,” said Dominion Energy Virginia President Edward H. Baine, in a statement.
CFS selected 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 plant’s equipment. The company has also received U.S. Department of Energy funding. 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 the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved a major milestone in 2022 by demonstrating fusion using lasers, CFS employs a different approach. Their technology relies on a donut-shaped device called a tokamak to confine and fuse molecules.
“You won’t need a pipeline to bring the fuel in, or a smokestack for the exhaust,” said CFS co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Bob Mumgaard.
Unlike fission, which splits heavy atoms like uranium to produce energy — and leaves behind radioactive waste — fusion creates energy by fusing light atoms, explained Alex Creely, CFS director of tokamak operations.
“One of the big advantages of fusion is that it doesn’t produce any long lived waste material, and there’s no risk of some kind of meltdown event,” Creely said. “It’s a very safe energy source — something that you can live right next to and feel very comfortable with.”
Del. 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 electric grid. If passed, fusion-generated power would count toward meeting the law’s clean energy requirements.
“Since the VCEA’s passage, 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 declined or abandoned the opportunity and responsibility it took to lead in clean energy,” Sullivan said.
Youngkin emphasized that the project will be financed entirely by CFS, with no cost passed on to Dominion Energy ratepayers. The facility will operate as an independent l 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 the growth in data centers in Virginia will very happily take the power that is generated at this plant,” Youngkin said.
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 determined 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 may include an air permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for backup generators during emergencies and potentially a storm water discharge permit, depending on the site-design.
Bryant noted that it was “a coincidence” that the selected site was initially chosen by Dominion for a proposed natural gas plant before the utility relocated that project to the nearby, former 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.
“Considering rising energy demand in Virginia driven by data centers and that most folks in the environmental world are not in support of 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 plant’s backup power would rely on gas-powered systems or electric alternatives.
