CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Governor Glenn Youngkin announced a first-of-its-kind energy plant to be built in Central Virginia. It will be the world's first commercial nuclear fusion power plant.
Virginia has teamed up with the Massachusetts-based company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to make this happen. They say the plant will use nuclear fusion capable of powering about 150,000 homes and will generate hundreds of jobs for Virginians.
In Tuesday's announcement, Governor Youngkin said the plant would be built in Chesterfield County at the James River Industrial Center on land owned by Dominion Energy.
The CFS team say fusion energy releases no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. This happens by turning hydrogen into a highly energetic cloud of particles and heating those particles up so they become energetic enough to become fusion.
The power plant will look like a gas plant but without any fuel, greenhouse gases or pollution, according to CFS.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, fusion also does not produce long-lived radioactive waste.
"Commonwealth Fusion Systems is not just building a facility, they are pioneering groundbreaking innovation to generate clean, reliable, safe power, and it's happening right here in Virginia," Governor Youngkin said.
CFS will invest several billion dollars into this plant, which is expected to be up and running in the early 2030s.
There are already nuclear power plants in Virginia, including the Surry Power Station, the North Anna Nuclear Generation Station, however, they use nuclear fission, which is a different process.
"Fission occurs when a neutron slams into a larger atom, forcing it to excite and split into two smaller atoms -- also known as fission products. Additional neutrons are also released that can initiate a chain reaction. When each atom splits, a tremendous amount of energy is released," according to the U.S. Department of Energy.