Fusion Energy Hustlers Keep Seducing Southern Governors

[KT is still recuperating, so please continue to keep her in your prayers. - Buck]

Just before Christmas, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) issued a press release announcing that he had fallen victim to some smooth-talking hustlers promoting a hypothetical new source of “clean energy,” which is going to cost Virginia taxpayers several million dollars.

I’m paraphrasing.

Actually, Gov. Youngkin’s press release titled “Governor Glenn Youngkin Announces World’s First Commercial Fusion Power Plant,” stated that Chesterfield County (suburban Richmond) was going to be the location of “the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant,” to be operated by a private company named Commonwealth Fusion Systems. Youngkin is quoted in the press release as saying, “This is an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large. 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. We are proud to be home to this pursuit to change the future of energy and power.”

Unsurprisingly, even though Commonwealth Fusion is a private company, it is quite receptive to generating cash by accepting government appropriations. At the end of the governor’s press release, it noted that Virginia taxpayers will have to cough up $2 million dollars in grants as the price for winning this prize. The rest of us are also contributing, as another $15 million was awarded to Commonwealth Fusion by the Department of Energy this past June. (Attention DOGE.)

There is no word yet if Virginia is competing to lure any companies promising to produce jobs and “grid scale” power with perpetual motion.

For many decades, nuclear fusion has been touted as an imminent source of limitless, clean energy – but it’s always been just 10 more years away. After all the failed timelines, it’s become a joke that nuclear fusion is the energy of the future, and always will be, because it’s always still 10 years away. This Virginia fusion project is promising to have figured out the technology to produce “grid scale” fusion energy by the 2030s – e.g. in about 10 years. Of course.

At nuclear plants that have been producing power over the past 60 years, it is nuclear fission that has been used to generate electricity. Fission is the process of splitting atoms. By contrast, fusion produces energy by fusing together the nuclei of two atoms into one. Fusion at an industrial scale has been, and remains, a hypothetical source of “grid scale” power. The Washington Post’s article about Youngkin’s fusion announcement includes this line, “If the technology can be proved, the project promises to supply about 400 megawatts of electricity — enough energy to power about 150,000 homes.” That’s a big “if.” That’s akin to me stating that if my wife can just master the skill of spinning straw into gold, we’ll never have to worry about money again. Perhaps I should apply for a grant from Gov. Youngkin for my straw-to-gold operation, promising that once the technology is mastered and scaled up, it will result in many high-paying jobs for Virginians.

Sadly, Gov. Youngkin is not the only southern governor to get seduced by the nuclear fusion, snake-oil salesmen. Governor Bill Lee (R) of Tennessee also fell for it.

It was less than a year ago, in February 2024, that Gov. Lee triumphantly announced via a press release that the state of Tennessee was partnering with a start-up company named Type One Energy to bring hundreds of jobs to the Knoxville area to develop commercially viable nuclear fusion energy.

“Our administration created the Nuclear Energy Fund in partnership with the Tennessee General Assembly to recruit companies like Type One Energy. Tennessee is ready to secure its place as the top state for energy independence, and we are proud to partner with Type One Energy to further that mission and bring hundreds of high-quality jobs and more reliable energy to Tennesseans.” – Gov. Bill Lee

I’m genuinely embarrassed for Bill Lee, as there is nothing “reliable” about a source of energy for which the technology has not even been developed.

An article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press stated that about $7 million of Tennessee taxpayer funds was being steered to this nuclear fusion promoter that has no actual revenue from the sale of electricity, nor any prospect of it for years to come, if ever.

An argument can be made that using taxpayer funds to incentivize the construction of nuclear fission projects, especially small modular nuclear fission plants, makes sense. The technology exists and the need for additional electricity is real. But it is deeply disturbing to see southern Republican governors like Glenn Youngkin and Bill Lee get swindled by smooth-talking Harold Hills promoting the “clean energy” equivalent of the River City Boys Band.

It is with great confidence that I state that by 2035, there will not be one kilowatt of electricity put into the grid by Commonwealth Fusion in Virginia or by Type One Energy in Tennessee. The future of nuclear fusion will then move on to the next state with a credulous governor willing to waste taxpayer money for the reward of producing a press release announcing his commitment to “clean energy.”

Low-tax states cannot remain low-tax if their Republican governors choose to squander taxpayer money on nonsensical “clean energy” boondoggles.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 10:15 AM

| Access Comments