Elbahrain.net If all goes to plan, Virginia will be the site of the world’s first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant, able to harness this futuristic clean power and generate electricity from it by the early 2030s, according to an announcement Tuesday by the startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

CFS, one of the largest and most-hyped nuclear fusion companies, will make a multibillion-dollar investment into building the facility near Richmond. When operational, the plant will be able to plug into the grid and produce 400 megawatts, enough to power around 150,000 homes, said its CEO Bob Mumgaard.

“This will mark the first time fusion power will be made available in the world at grid scale,” Mumgaard said. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement, calling it “an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large.”

The plant would represent a new stage in the quest to commercialize nuclear fusion, the process which powers the stars. But the path toward it is unlikely to be smooth, not least because the technology has not yet been proved viable.

The world is desperate for a clean, abundant source of energy that can replace fossil fuels as an always-available baseload power: nuclear fusion promises to be just that.

It involves fusing atoms together to create a powerful burst of energy, achieved using the most abundant element in the universe: hydrogen. The most popular technology uses a donut-shaped machine called a tokamak.

Fusion is near limitless, produces no planet-heating pollution and unlike fission, the nuclear technology the world currently uses, it leaves no legacy of long-term nuclear waste.

But taking it from research projects in labs around the world to commercial use has proved fiendishly difficult. A common joke in the industry is that, for decades, fusion has been just decades away.

It’s something CFS acknowledges. “Nothing occurs overnight in fusion,” Mumgaard said. But the startup, which was spun out of MIT in 2018 and has raised more than $2 billion so far, says it is moving at pace.

It is “deep into” building a tokamak able to demonstrate net fusion energy: meaning a reaction that produces more energy than it consumes. It hopes to produce its first plasma – the superheated cloud of charged gas in which fusion reactions happen – in 2026 and achieve net fusion energy shortly afterward.

Building, owning and operating a power plant to plug fusion power into the grid is its “next act,” Mumgaard said.

The startup looked at more than 100 locations around the world for the power plant before choosing the James River Industrial Center in Virginia. The site is owned by Dominion Energy, which will lease it to CFS and provide technical assistance. The construction process is set to be long and CFS says it is still seeking permits.

The location was chosen for its growing economy, skilled workforce, clean energy focus and the ability it offered to connect into the grid after the retirement of a coal plant, CFS said.

“In the early 2030s, all eyes will be on the Richmond region … as the birthplace of commercial fusion energy,” Mumgaard said.

Virginia is also the world’s largest data center market, a sector that requires huge and growing amounts of energy. Data center electricity consumption in the US is expected to triple by 2030, equivalent to the amount needed to power around 40 million US homes, according to a Boston Consulting Group analysis.

CFS says the Virginia plant is intended to be the first of thousands they plan to put onto the grid in the future.

The startup is far from the only private company trying to accelerate the timeline toward achieving and commercializing nuclear fusion, with others also promising to do so by early next decade.

In general, nuclear fusion startups “tend to be a little aggressive in what they’re promising,” Jerry Navratil, a professor of fusion energy and plasma physics at Columbia University, told CNN last month. There’s a big difference between producing energy from fusion and having a practical system that puts power on the grid and is safe, licensed and operating, he added.

Mumgaard acknowledged “there will be bumps in the road and things won’t change overnight.” But, he added, “the designers and planners can now go from a general notion to a specific location for the next chapter in the fusion journey.”

Elbahrain.net Appearance and reality: there is a constant battle in Moscow between the two.

Despite nearly three years of war, life here can seem so normal: from the crowds of commuters on the Metro to the bars and clubs packed with young Muscovites.

Then, suddenly, something happens to remind you: there is nothing normal about Russia today.

That “something” can be a Ukrainian drone penetrating Moscow’s air defences.

Or – even more dramatic – what happened on Tuesday morning: the targeted assassination of a senior Russian general as he walked out of an apartment block.

When Lt Gen Igor Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov were killed by a bomb concealed on an electric scooter, the reality of Russia’s war on Ukraine hit home.
At least to those Russians close to the crime scene.

“It’s one thing reading about it in the news, it feels far, but when it happens next door to you, that’s completely different and frightening,” Liza tells me. She lives one building from the site of the blast.

“Until now, [the war] felt as if it was happening a long way off – now someone is dead, here, you can feel the consequences.

“My anxiety has gone through the roof. Every sound you hear unnerves you – you wonder whether it’s a drone or something at a construction site,” Liza says.

This perception of Russia’s war in Ukraine as something distant – I’ve heard that so often here. I get the sense that, for a considerable portion of the population, this is a war they only experience on their TV screen or on their smart phone. In many ways, a virtual war.

Astonishing, really, considering the large number of dead and wounded.

But the killing of a Russian general in Moscow: that is a definite wake-up call; proof that this war is very real and very close to home.

ELBAHRAIN.NET Australia Asked for Transfer of 5 Bali Nine – Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Law, Human Rights, Immigration,
and Corrections explained that the transfer of the five Bali Nine prisoners to
Australia was carried out privately at the request of the Australian Government. The five Bali Nine members were transferred to their home country, Australia, on Sunday, December 15, 2024.

“That was the request of the Australian government that they wanted to ensure that
everything runs smoothly and we also wanted to ensure that negotiations are also
continuously updated and that everything is safe,” said Special Staff for
International Relations of the Coordinating Ministry for Law and Human Rights,
Imipas, Ahmad Usmarwi Kaffah during a press conference in Jakarta on Monday, December 16, 2024.

Kaffah said that Australia wanted the transfer of the five Bali Nine prisoners not to
be widely discussed in his country. However, Kaffah ensured that the sovereignty of the two countries was the priority in the transfer of international prisoners.

“They want it there, in Australia, not crowded, that’s all. We are also good friends,
as long as they follow our request, respect the sovereignty of our
country and the rules of law that have been decided by the court, why not?” he said.

On the other hand, he said, the Indonesian government also wants the transfer
process to run on time because the convicts being transferred are being held in
different areas, namely Surabaya, East Java; Bangli Regency, Bali; and Kerobokan,
Badung Regency, Bali.

“Prisoners from Surabaya and Bangli must arrive on time in Kerobokan, Badung, Bali,
so that they can be united with the other two prisoners to facilitate mobilization,” said Kaffah.

The Bali Nine is the nickname for nine Australian prisoners who were arrested in
Bali for being involved in a drug syndicate case in 2005. They were proven to have smuggled 8.2 kilograms of heroin. The nine prisoners were Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran,
Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Renae Lawrence, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, and Martin Stephens.

Australia Asked for Transfer of 5 Bali Ninea

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in 2015, while
Renae was sentenced to 20 years in prison and was released in 2018 after receiving several remissions. Meanwhile, Tan Duc died in custody while serving a life sentence in 2018.

Currently, only five Bali Nine prisoners are still serving life sentences. They are Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, and Martin Stephens. The five were transferred to their home country, Australia, on Sunday morning.

Chronology of the Transfer of Five Bali Nine Prisoners to Australia

Deputy Coordinator of Immigration and Corrections of the Coordinating
Ministry for Law and Human Rights Imipas I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram
explained the chronology of events until the process of transferring the five prisoners

Before being transferred to Australia, he said, the five prisoners were
gathered at the Class IIA Kerobokan Prison, Bali, where Matthew
James Norman and Si Yi Chen were serving their sentences.
Meanwhile, Martin Eric Stephens and Michael William Czugaj
were sent first from Class I Surabaya Prison on Friday night,
December 13, 2024, and arrived at Class IIA Kerobokan Prison in the early hours of Saturday, December 14, 2024.

Meanwhile, Scott Anthony Rush was sent from Class IIA Bangli Prison on Friday night, December 13, 2024. He arrived at Class IIA Kerobokan Prison on the same day.

They were handed over to the Australian government at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali.

The Australian group took off from
Ngurah Rai Airport at 10:35 WITA (Indonesian Central Time) and landed in Darwin,
Australia, at 13:12 WITA or around 14:42 local time.

The transfer of the five Bali Nine prisoners was based on a technical
arrangement (practical arrangement) signed by Coordinating
Minister for Law and Human Rights, Imipas Yusril Ihza Mahendra and
Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke virtually on Thursday, December 12, 2024.