There’s an old bit of doggerel about a man who is approaching a goal; each step he takes reduces the distance between himself and his goal by one-half. So if he starts 10 feet away, one step puts him at five feet, then two-and-a-half… The upshot, of course, is that he can never cut the distance to zero. He can never achieve his goal.
That’s a lot like what the attempts at practical, grid-scale fusion reactors have been like. We seem to always be getting closer and closer, but somehow can never reach the goal. Oh, yes, a man’s reach should exceed his grasp – but fusion power researchers have been reaching for quite a while now.
But in Virginia, one company is making plans to build the first production-scale fusion power plant.
The world’s largest private fusion company has announced that it has chosen Chesterfield, Virginia, as the site of the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant, which will also be its first power plant.
Founded in Massachusetts as a result of decades of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Commonwealth Fusion Systems is at the forefront of efforts to “build a full-fledged fusion energy industry” that aims to help meet the energy demands of the future without relying on fossil fuels.
“ARC, the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant, will mark the start of the fusion age,” according to the company. “To the grid, it’ll look just like the 2,000 natural gas plants already built in the U.S. — except that ARC won’t release any carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.”
Well, that would be great, if they can make it work. Fusion promises cheap, abundant power, and solves the energy-density problem that advocates of wind and solar alternatives don’t seem to know how to deal with. But does Commonwealth have a practical reactor design?
Never forget Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. When will we finally learn not to fool with Mother Nature?