Commonwealth Fusion Systems selects Chesterfield County for first commercial fusion power plant

Commonwealth Fusion Systems on Tuesday said it has selected a site in Chesterfield County, Virginia, for its first commercial fusion power plant and is preparing to begin site work there.

Kristen Collin, vice president of global policy and public affairs at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, told members of the authority that the company chose the site after a roughly two-and-a-half-year siting process that emphasized proximity to an interconnection, access to skilled labor, and local partnerships. She said the site is Dominion Energy–owned and is easily accessible from I‑95 and a nearby airport.

Collin said the company plans to build an ARC-class power plant in Chesterfield County that would have about 400 megawatts of net capacity. Collin described CFS’s near-term program as a two-step approach: the SPARC prototype under construction in Massachusetts, which she said is set to be operational in 2026, and ARC, the commercial design the company expects to put power on the grid in the early 2030s.

“Fusion is incredibly energy dense,” Collin said, describing the technology as a high‑energy‑density heat source that can be used to produce firm, dispatchable electricity.

Collin outlined elements of the company’s technology path: a conventional tokamak fusion machine combined with high‑temperature superconducting magnets that CFS developed and is manufacturing at scale in Devens, Massachusetts. She said the firm has raised the majority of its funding privately and has more than 1,000 employees.

On regulation and licensing, Collin said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to regulate fusion under 10 CFR part 30 and that because Virginia is an NRC agreement state, the state will be involved in issuing radiological authorizations for fusion facilities. She said the NRC’s rulemaking and the state’s implementing procedures remain in progress.

Collin also described funding the company has received through Department of Energy programs, saying CFS won a DOE milestone award of roughly $15 million and participates in INFUSE‑style lab collaboration programs. She said those awards supplement primarily private capital commitments.

During questions, members pressed CFS on supply‑chain and workforce plans, the company’s timing relative to other private fusion developers, and whether deployment in Virginia depends on additional federal grants. Collin said CFS views its challenge as primarily engineering and supply‑chain scaling rather than unresolved physics and that the firm is focused on building supply chains, training a workforce, and partnering with local colleges and utilities.

Why this matters: If built as described, the ARC plant would be a first‑of‑a‑kind commercial fusion demonstration and could have long‑term implications for grid planning, regional workforce development and local supply‑chain demand. The company and regulators still face unresolved rulemaking, permitting and detailed interconnection work before construction of a commercial plant could proceed.

Collin invited authority members and others to engage on workforce and community partnerships and to visit CFS facilities and the SPARC prototype activities in Massachusetts.