Commonwealth Fusion Systems

"This is not a paper exercise for us," Mumgaard said. "We're putting this machine together, we're buying the parts, we're machining the parts, and it's all coming together at the exact time the world really needs something like this." – Bob Mumgaard, CEO at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, speaking with Ben Tracy and CBS Sunday Mornings about the real progress we're making on fusion. The fusion milestone the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved in 2022 by creating energy from fusion that surpassed the laser energy that triggered the reaction, proved that fusion on Earth is possible. At CFS, we're hard at work on our own equivalent demonstration using superconducting magnets. That’s the purpose of the prototype fusion machine, SPARC, that we’re building today at our headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. It’s designed to let us take our next big step toward sustainable, commercial fusion energy that we expect will transform the world.

Jennifer Ganten, Chief Global Affairs Officer at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, joined Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman David Wright and others this week to talk about the role regulation plays in helping to bring fusion power to the grid. With our SPARC machine under construction now at CFS, we’re steadily overcoming the technical challenges around fusion. But for fusion to succeed, we also need an effective, appropriate regulatory framework, Ganten said at the commission’s Regulatory Information Conference (RIC). With regulatory certainty, we see investments grow across the entire fusion ecosystem, from power plant developers to suppliers. Ganten also thanked NRC — from the commissioners through to the staff members — for their constructive engagement in the fusion regulatory conversation.

Fusion energy is bigger than any single company. Attendees of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston this week got a taste of the range of leaders needed to make fusion energy real as Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Dominion Energy Chief Executive Bob Blue shared the stage with our own CEO, Bob Mumgaard. We’re working together to coordinate the technology, business, and government efforts needed to bring the energy source of the sun to our planet. “People looking at the future and what innovation fits in — they come from all different parts of the ecosystem,” Mumgaard said at the conference. “Whether that’s venture capitalists, or an oil and gas executive, or a place like MIT — it’s going to take a lot of breadth to make these technologies go from an idea and the science to a demonstration. At Commonwealth Fusion Systems, we’ve recognized that from the beginning. That’s why ‘systems’ is in the name. It’s not just the technical system, it’s the bigger system.” We’re building our first fusion machine, a tokamak called SPARC, to demonstrate net fusion energy in 2027 at CFS headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. And in December, we announced our plan to send fusion power to the grid starting in the early 2030s with our first ARC power plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Virginia, home of “data center alley” along with industrial and population growth, needs that power. “We’ve got one of the fastest growing demands for electricity of any utility in the country: It’s 6% annual growth rate for the next decade. Bear in mind our company has connected 415 data centers to date with a load of about 9 gigawatts. We have under contract another 5 [gigawatts],” said Dominion Energy’s Blue. “Having this kind of source of electricity will be very valuable.” And there’s urgency to the work. CFS accounts for about 30% of all the employees and private funding for fusion energy, but “we’re eclipsed by the Chinese program, which is several times bigger,” Mumgaard said. Youngkin agrees. “There’s a race to lead the world in power generation. China is building coal plants, China is building gas plants, China is building small modular reactors, China is building AP1000 [nuclear power plants], and China is building fusion plants. Therefore, we’ve got to get moving,” Youngkin said. “We’ve got to drive hard to accelerate fusion.” #PowerMoves #FusionEnergy #Virginia

“Holy mackerel. This is a game-changer.” That was the reaction fusion pioneer Bob Conn said he had when he heard about two of the innovations that led to the founding of Commonwealth Fusion Systems and our approach to generating fusion energy. The first innovation: high-temperature superconductors (HTS), materials that can make electromagnets more powerful and our fusion machines, called tokamaks, more economical. Second was electrical connection joints that mean magnets can be taken apart then reassembled. That makes maintenance “dramatically” easier, Conn said in a talk at the University of California–San Diego, where he’s a dean emeritus. Conn is in a good position to appreciate those developments. Over decades in fusion research, Conn was instrumental in bringing several tokamak to life, and he helped set up several labs’ fusion programs. He praised the National Ignition Facility researchers who showed net fusion energy in 2022 using a laser-based system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Tokamaks are headed the same direction and are easier to turn into a power plant, he argues: “When I look at the rest of the system, the tokamak has a leg up.” Check the video for Conn’s full talk: https://lnkd.in/efmkfpTW

It takes a special blend of engineering and physics to heat a plasma to 100 million degrees Celsius, the temperature needed for fusion in our SPARC machine. Behold the radio frequency (RF) delivery system. The RF system delivers radio waves to heat the plasma that we'll hold inside the donut-shaped chamber at the heart of the tokamak, comparable to how a microwave heats food. But in this case, the power of our RF system is equivalent to about 40,000 household microwaves. The RF system works alongside other heating mechanisms not just to get the plasma hot but also to keep it hot long enough to produce net energy. A collection of SPARC technologies, chiefly our superconducting magnets, will provide the magnetic bottle that confines the plasma during that period. #FusionEnergy

AI stands to give fusion a boost, says our CEO and Co-founder Bob Mumgaard. Researchers can use artificial intelligence to spot patterns in the reams of data many fusion experiments have produced — and then crucially, link that research with more traditional computer models. “We’re coupling all that data in AIs with the big simulations actually calculating things out from first principles. That’s a type of recipe that AI looks really really good at,” he said on the Special Competitive Studies Project - SCSP podcast, NatSec Tech, as a guest with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) Director Steven Crowley. SCSP last week published a report laying out a plan to ensure the US can benefit from fusion’s potential and compete with countries like China making bigger investments. On the podcast you can hear Bob’s take on plenty of fusion topics: • The SCSP fusion roadmap: “The Kitty Hawk analogy is a good one. Look at today’s aviation industry and how big it is. Imagine if the Wright Brothers, instead of playing around with bicycle spare parts, actually had a real program around them. For competitiveness, the US would be really advised to up its investment to even just match what other nations are doing. The report lays out the foundations of that pretty well.” • Fusion’s bipartisan appeal: “The idea of energy as a technology — something you can build, that you can repeat, that doesn’t have constraints on it, that has abundance, that has manufacturing, that comes from basic research, that’s something the US could build a lead in as an export market — those are all themes that are inherent in the fusion story.” • Fusion’s remaining challenges: “We still have work to do to make sure we can capture all that heat and turn it into electricity. We still have work to do to make sure those plants can last a long time. But it’s transitioning from what was historically a scientific endeavor into a more engineering and commercial — though still with plenty of science left — endeavor.” Listen to the interview here: https://lnkd.in/eEz2i9cZ

“I am totally aligned on the fact that in the 21st century, the country that has the cleanest, most reliable energy source will win. The entity that gets power right will run the 21st century.” –Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, speaking at the Fusion Industry Association's 2025 Annual Policy Conference this week. CFS is starting to put down roots in Virginia with our ARC fusion power plant coming to Chesterfield County. It’s designed to produce 400 megawatts of clean, 24x7 power starting in the early 2030s. Our CEO Bob Mumgaard shared the stage with the senator, saying, “There's something clarifying about knowing where you're going to go. Our piece of land is a multi-decade commitment." CFS selected the Virginia site, leased from Dominion Energy, in December: https://lnkd.in/dKGtXRjX #FusionEnergy #Virginia

For a look at how and why the US can supercharge the fusion energy industry, take a read through today’s report from the Special Competitive Studies Project - SCSP's Commission on the Scaling of Fusion Energy, where I’m a commissioner. Quoting from its conclusion: “The nation that leads in fusion could write the global rules and secure significant economic advantages, ensure its energy independence, and maintain its technological edge in critical areas, including AI, advanced manufacturing, and national defense.” To be a world leader in fusion energy, the US government should: • Make it clear what the stakes are for winning the race to commercial fusion energy — in particular the race against a robust program in China. • Set an ambitious but achievable goal to start construction of a fusion power plant this decade — a step we expect to take with our ARC facility in Chesterfield County, Virginia (https://lnkd.in/eHiDY9Hz). • Make a strategic, one-time $10 billion investment to maintain its fusion energy research edge and accelerate the deployment of fusion energy by leveraging the strengths of the private fusion industry. This is all consistent with the needs identified by the US fusion community under President Trump’s first term, but that the US has failed to act on — a plan the Chinese government has begun implementing already (https://lnkd.in/eeRqtmAV). And it would fully fund the Milestone-based Fusion Development cost-sharing program (https://lnkd.in/eMDA9J-z) to enable private fusion companies like CFS to deploy and scale fusion power more quickly. The Commission's report makes clear there’s a lot to look forward to. ”Fusion power can become a source of national strength. It can fuel an AI-enabled economy, shore up domestic energy security, and reshape energy geopolitics, with significant leverage accruing to first-mover nations.” We’re in a critical period to act right now to reap the rewards of a strong fusion program. Now is the time – “A big bet on fusion could secure America’s position as a technological superpower for decades to come.” I’m grateful for the leadership from commission Co-Chairs Senators James Risch and Maria Cantwell, and Ylli Bajraktari with the SCSP. I look forward to advancing the recommendations of this report with policymakers in Washington, DC. https://lnkd.in/eguqM-5E #SCSPTech #FusionEnergy #EnergySecurity

“Imagine a world where you have access to unlimited energy, and not at the expense of the environment. What would you do with that? Our view at CFS is that ultimately, there are two fundamental markets: energy and creativity. And if both of those are basically unlimited, the world can do unimaginable things." – Ally Yost, SVP of Corporate Development at CFS, speaking about commercialized fusion energy's opportunity in a panel at Davos hosted by Imagination in Action. With fusion, explains Ally, "you could decarbonize almost the entire economy." Read more from John Werner at Forbes here: https://lnkd.in/e-EY-fvu

We’re looking forward to participating in the Fusion Industry Association's 2025 Annual Policy Conference next week. Delivering fusion energy’s promise takes more than just physics and engineering: regulators and policymakers can play an important role helping to accelerate this industry as we move from R&D to commercialization. #FusionEnergy