Workers assembling magnets at Commonwealth Fusion's headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts.
Photographer: Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg
Nuclear Fusion Leader Wants to Build on Site of Old Coal Plants
Commonwealth Fusion has crossed a key threshold on its quest to generate clean power. It's eyeing shuttered fossil-fuel plants as prime sites to do so.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC is looking to replace the boilers in fossil fuel power plants with the heat of the sun.
The US company is so confident in its fusion technology that it’s evaluating old coal and natural gas plants as locations to build its first commercial system even before its demonstration device is finished. Doing so would mark a step change for the energy transition and the shift from polluting fossil fuels to carbon-free fusion power, though fusion remains an unproven nuclear technology.