The developer of what it aims to be a 400MW fusion nuclear power plant, described as the world’s largest, is scrambling to secure building permits and additional funding, with an announcement in recent days that it will build the facility lation in Chesterfield County. go on a 100-acre site leased by state utility giant Dominion Energy.
Fusion technology startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems said its ARC plant, which will be operational in the early 2030s, will begin development next year even before a smaller prototype is completed at its base in Fort Devens, Massachusetts.
ARC technology uses powerful magnets to contain and control nuclear fusion fuel, unlike plants based on traditional nuclear fission processes.
The site and timeline for the ARC project were announced by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and company co-founder and CEO Bob Mumgaard after what they said was a global search of about 100 locations for to the construction of the electrical project on a commercial scale.
Advantages of the Virginia site near Richmond include being in a region of high energy demand, driven largely by artificial intelligence, making it one of the fastest-growing data centers in the country , as both said. A state legislative report noted earlier this month that data center demand in Virginia, about 10,000 MW today, could reach 30,000 MW by 2040 if transmission infrastructure were available.
The site is also close to a grid connection, transportation, an available skilled workforce and “a receptive community,” Mumgaard said.
The Commonwealth did not disclose the cost of the project, which is believed to be in the “billions”, with some media sources estimating it at around $3 billion. Since the company’s 2018 launch out of MIT’s tech incubators by university alumni, it has raised more than $2 billion from around 60 private investors including Bill Gates, Google, Equinor and Eni , the Italian oil and gas giant.
Youngkin said the power plant would bring billions of dollars in regional economic development.
The company is now completing the estimated $500 million fusion complex, which includes building a donut-shaped tokamak prototype called SPARC that will heat hydrogen atoms to about 180 million degrees F. The plasma resulting is compressed by a powerful magnetic field to fuse atoms and release energy. It is expected to produce 50-100 MW of fusion power, with its first plasma production in 2026,
Commonwealth did not confirm by publication the members of the design and construction team for the ARC project, but those working on the SPARC prototype and other tasks at the Fort Devens site are engineer HDR and BOND Construction as the design firm principal and contractor for all construction phases, with Thornton Tomasetti and VHB as structural and civil engineers, respectively,
Youngkin said the developer will finance the project, with the plant selling power to specific buyers through power purchase agreements and directly to the PJM Regional Interconnection Grid. Commonwealth did not disclose any client names.
In addition to the private investment, the ARC project has $16.5 million in technology funding from the US Department of Energy, with small investments also from the state and county Clean Energy Innovation Bank, as well as tax breaks of teams
Identifying a location is “the longest part of building a power plant,” Mumgaard said, describing the site as a site with a soon-to-be retired coal-fired power plant that was originally supposed to have an natural gas electricity as headquarters. replacement “Dominion will provide us with technical and development expertise, while we will provide them with expertise on how to build and operate fusion power plants,” he said.
The ARC plant won state approval after the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined last year that the fusion technology would not require federal licensing. But the project will still need other permits from local, state and federal authorities. The local license application is under review early next year and could be approved in the summer.
Meanwhile, commercial fusion firm Focused Energy also announced a partnership with “ultrafast” laser developer Amplitude to advance two laser systems for inertial fusion energy, with beamlines to be installed at facilities · the developer’s planned $65 million laser development in the San Francisco Bay Area that was announced earlier this year.
