'World's First' Grid-Scale Nuclear Fusion Power Plant Announced In the US

Longtime Slashdot reader timeOday shares a report from CNN: If all goes to plan, Virginia will be the site of the world's first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant, able to harness this futuristic clean power and generate electricity from it by the early 2030s, according to an announcement Tuesday by the startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems. CFS, one of the largest and most-hyped nuclear fusion companies, will make a multibillion-dollar investment into building the facility near Richmond. When operational, the plant will be able to plug into the grid and produce 400 megawatts, enough to power around 150,000 homes, said its CEO Bob Mumgaard.

"This will mark the first time fusion power will be made available in the world at grid scale," Mumgaard said. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement, calling it "an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large." The plant would represent a new stage in the quest to commercialize nuclear fusion, the process which powers the stars. But the path toward it is unlikely to be smooth, not least because the technology has not yet been proved viable.

Vaperware

[Smonster]

I’ll believe it when I see it. Some people are definitely going to get rich of the taxpayer trough though.

Re:

[timeOday]

Private investment in fusion totally dwarfs government funding these days. Best I can tell, CFS has $2 B in private funding [cfs.energy], and $0.015 B in government funding. [cfs.energy]

Re:

[timeOday]

Further proof that government funding is less than 10% of private:

https://www.fusionindustryasso... [fusionindu...iation.org]

Re:

[geekmux]

I’ll believe it when I see it. Some people are definitely going to get rich of the taxpayer trough though.

Why should they? Plenty of elections will take place between now and when they claim this bullshit might

the science

[acdc_rules]

they really should nail down the science on this first. but then again, i heard putin cured cancer.

Re:

[Smidge204]

The science is more or less settled. It's the engineering - turning theory and math into a real, working machine - that's been the big problem.

Fusion is one of those things where there's no benefit to doing small-scale tests, since it's stupidly expensive and does not scale down well. If you're gonna do it, might as well go all out and build it full scale.

Will this reactor ever be successful? I'd wager not, but I'd be happy to be wrong. Until then I'm not going to waste much time thinking about it.
=Smidge=

The science is out there

[Okian Warrior]

they really should nail down the science on this first. but then again, i heard putin cured cancer.

You do realize MIT made a breakthrough in fusion a year or two ago, had a long video on YouTube explaining exactly what they found, and all that information is available for your perusal, right? And there was an article here on slashdot, right?

Fusion return is proportional to the fourth power of the containment field. By using modern superconducting magnets and some innovative design, they are able to achieve a much stronger confinement. This results in a longer, higher pressure burn (various, depending on

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

And there was an article here on slashdot, right?

I think this is the most recent Slashdot article on the MIT breakthrough. https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]

Re:

[Tailhook]

(I'm about as pro-nuclear, including fusion, as they get)

They've made compact superconducting magnets that theoretically produce enough confinement to sustain a large gain in power. They will probably break every record yet for fusion power gain, short of a hydrogen bomb. I'm very much looking forward to startup.

However, there are a large number of unsolved problems before they have a commercial grade power reactor, as per the headline claims. So yes, this latest bit of hype is best treated with skep

Blame the boomers

[drnb]

Why people have to be snippy and insulting instead of just asking "what's the science behind this" is beyond me.

Its boomers. They remember the cold fusion breakthrough.

Promises of the future

[phantomfive]

Remember when every car company was promising self-driving cars by 2020? https://edition.cnn.com/2022/1... [cnn.com]

Now we have entrepreneurs promising fusion by 2030. I like fusion, I hope it happens, but somehow I have doubts.

Re:

[michael_cain]

Yeah, early 2030s, and they haven't achieved first plasma yet. Heck, Gates/Buffett are saying early 2030s for their sodium-cooled fission reactor.

Re:

[timeOday]

Gates is also a big investor in Commonwealth Fusion.

https://observer.com/2024/09/b... [observer.com]

Disclaimer

[GrahamJ]

This will mark the first time fusion power will be made available in the world at grid scale*

* once we get it working

Re:

[lenski]

That itty-bitty asterisk is carrying a lot of weight.

I wonder if any betting sites have set up a pool for this project?

FYI, it would be wonderful if true. I just do not believe it, being of the generation that knew "fusion is only 30 years away and always will be".

Old news

[DrMrLordX]

Commonwealth Fusion has had this plan in their press releases for several years now.

Re:

[timeOday]

Now they have a site:

https://blog.cfs.energy/cfs-wi... [blog.cfs.energy]

consider the source

[si3n4]

"shares a report from CNN" if it's from CNN it must be true

I own the first FTL ship spaceport

[greytree]

I also have the building for the first Time Portal, and the factory that will make the first Perpetual Motion cars.

Who writes this nonsense?

Who believes it enough to post it here?

Re:

[phantomfive]

I own the first FTL ship spaceport

I hope you installed appropriately sized apollo retroreflectors, otherwise it's not up to code and will be shut down.

Politics

[rossdee]

"Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement,"

Aren't Governors in VA term limited? So he won't have to explain why it didn't happen while he was in charge..

Sounds like somebody...

[ahoffer0]

Sounds like somebody needs some good press before their next round of funding.

only 5 years away...

[kiviQr]

... some people have been waiting for "5y" since 80s.

Not to be outdone

[Randseed]

Next week Elon will announce plans for a warp core.

why does the picture show a Chinese tokamak?

[oumuamua]

Ah interesting: The US led on nuclear fusion for decades. Now China is in position to win the race

The company [Energy Singularity] is planning to build a second-generation tokamak to prove its methods are commercially viable by 2027, and it expects a third-gen device that can feed power to the grid before 2035, the company said. In contrast, the tokamaks in the US are aging, said Andrew Holland, CEO of the Washington, DC-based Fusion Industry Association. As a result, the US relies on its allies’ mac

Nope

[Baron_Yam]

Unless a major breakthrough was made in the last few hours, sustained artificial over-unity fusion is not a thing yet. Even if you ignore losses outside the actual fusion reaction itself.

I am announcing first transporter technology demo

[edi_guy]

Also sometime in the 2030's. Still working out the kinks that cause the evil version of yourself to beam in a second later.

Where are they getting the fuel?

[flink]

I read once that a grid scale D-T fusion plant would burn through the world's supply of tritium in a matter of days to weeks. Yes, it's a by-product of CANDU reactors, but they only produce so much per year, and this reactor is going to be competing for the supply with other industrial and scientific consumers, so the price will skyrocket if they try to buy up the entire world's supply. Are they going to be setup to breed tritium once they are up and running? I'm sure they must have a plan if they are co

Re:

[Firethorn]

That's why most fusion plants would involve a lithium lining in order to generate more tritium.