It's no secret, most of us would like to stay in our own home as we age. Yet, sometimes our loved ones just need a little extra help to remain comfortable at home. That's where Always Best Care can help....we are dedicated to exceeding expectations....always
They say that your golden years are the best years of your life. For most older Americans, that's how it should be - a time to relax, reflect, and live life in a familiar place. After all, senior citizens in the U.S. have worked tirelessly to build a better economy, serve their communities, and raise families.
Unfortunately, many older Americans aren't able to rely on their adult children for help. The reality in today's world is that family members do not have the skills or time to dedicate to caring for their parents. That's where Always Best Care Senior Services comes in.
Our in-home care services are for people who prefer to stay at home as they grow older but need ongoing care that family or friends cannot provide. More and more older adults prefer to live far away from long-term, institutionalized facilities and closer to the place where they feel most comfortable - their home. Home care in Chesterfield, VA is a safe, effective way to give your loved ones the care they need when they need it the most.
Home Care Services
Service AreasSince 1996, Always Best Care has provided non-medical in-home care for seniors to help them maintain a healthy lifestyle as they get older. We are proud to have helped more than 25,000 seniors maintain higher levels of dignity and respect. We focus on providing seniors with the highest level of in-home care available so that they may live happily and independently.
Unlike some senior care companies, we genuinely want to be included in our clients' lives. We believe that personalized care is always the better option over a "one size fits all" approach. To make sure our senior clients receive the best care possible, we pair them with compassionate caregivers who understand their unique needs. That way, they may provide care accordingly without compromising their wellbeing.
The Always Best Care difference lies in life's little moments - where compassionate care and trustworthy experience come together to help seniors live a fruitful, healthy life. Whether you are an aging adult that can't quite keep up with life's daily tasks or the child of a senior who needs regular in-home services, Always Best Care is here to help.
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“I am a current client of this provider We chose Always Best Care of Richmond South because they were able to get us, somebody, as quickly as we needed. Right now, they're providing help with bathing, meals, and light housework. They're also keeping an eye on my mom during the day. With regard to billing and scheduling, so far, so good. We're on a second caregiver just because of some issues on our behalf because we had to switch locations, but both caregivers seem okay. This will be our third week now.”
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“I highly recommend Always Best Care for their care, compassion and professionalism. They participated in the care of my mother as she lived out her life in her own home. The staff was always willing to answer questions, they communicated clearly, and responded to my requests with patience. The staff and caregivers made a significant contribution to my family and a huge difference at a time when I needed it the most.”
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“Always Best Care provided very good care to my aunt while she was in Assisted Living at The Towers and Memory Care at Elmcroft. CNA assigned to provide personal care was great. She was able to get my aunt to cooperate with assisting in personal hygiene where others were not as successful. NP Ashley was the best. I was concerned about her being receptive to a Chaplin visiting on a regular basis. Chaplin Ed was able to get her respond and was excellent with her. He looked forward to their visits. He always had good reports of each visit. My overall experience with Always Best Care was excellent. I would recommend them to anyone who is in need of additional care for their loved one. Thanks to all the staff at Always Best Care for all you do.”
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“The company provided a thorough evaluation of my parents and then worked very hard to find the right match as a caregiver. The person they found was perfect and became a part of the family.”
“Other We have used Always Best for several years They have been friendly and professional. The caretakers they have sent have always been extremely helpful as well as caring. Our present caretakers is exceptional Highly recommend Always Best Care”
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“I am a past client of this provider I highly recommend Always Best Care. When my mom had a stroke last year, Joan Shifflett and her team did an outstanding job helping during her recovery. They were always responsive, understanding, and most importantly, caring, during a very challenging time for me and my family. If you need similar help, contact Always Best Care.”
“I highly recommend Always Best Care. When my mom had a stroke last year, Joan Shifflett and her team did an outstanding job helping during her recovery. They were always responsive, understanding, and most importantly, caring, during a very challenging time for me and my family. If you need similar help, contact Always Best Care.”
“I highly recommend Always Best Care. When my mom had a stroke last year, Joan Shifflett and her team did an outstanding job helping during her recovery. They were always responsive, understanding, and most importantly, caring, during a very challenging time for me and my family. If you need similar help, contact Always Best Care.”
“OMG I swear we have the BEST caregiver ever! Aysia is like a part of the family � Jessica Thomas and Always Best Care Senior Services always provide us with the best and it makes my life so much easier. If you are ever in the need of In home care I highly recommend this group.”
“Wonderful, caring staff who ensures the patients and their families are happy with services provided. They will fight for coverage for their clients from the insurance company, which is something other senior care companies don't seem to have much time to do. This company really cares about their clients, and treat them like family.”
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Home is where the heart is. While that saying can sound a tad cliche, it is especially true for many seniors living in America. When given a choice, older adults most often prefer to grow older at home. An AARP study found that three out of four adults over the age of 50 want to stay in their homes and communities as they age.
When you begin to think about why, it makes sense. Home offers a sense of security, comfort, and familiarity.
The truth is, as we age, we begin to rely on others for help. When a family is too busy or lives too far away to fulfill this role, in-home senior care is often the best solution. Home care services allow seniors to enjoy personal independence while also receiving trustworthy assistance from a trained caregiver.
At Always Best Care, we offer a comprehensive range of home care services to help seniors stay healthy while they get the help they need to remain independent. As your senior loved one gets older, giving them the gift of senior care is one of the best ways to show your love, even if you live far away.
To give our senior clients the best care possible, we offer a full spectrum of in-home care services:
If your senior loved one has specific care needs, our personal care services are a great choice to consider. Personal care includes the standard caregiving duties associated with companion care and includes help with tasks such as dressing and grooming. Personal care can also help individuals with chronic conditions like diabetes.
Common personal care services include assistance with:
Sometimes, seniors need helpful reminders to maintain a high quality of life at home. If you or your senior has trouble with everyday tasks like cooking, our home helper services will be very beneficial.
Common home helper care services include assistance with:
Using this kind of care is a fantastic way to make life easier for you or your senior loved one. At Always Best Care, our talented caregivers often fill the role of a companion for seniors.
Common companionship services include:
According to AARP, more than 53 million adults living in the U.S. provide care to someone over 50 years old. Unfortunately, these caregivers experience stress, exhaustion, and even depression. Our respite care services help family caregivers address urgent obligations, spend time with their children, and enjoy nearby activities. Perhaps more importantly, respite care gives family members time to recharge and regroup. Taking personal time to de-stress reduces the risk of caregiver burnout. Doing so is great for both you and your loved one.
At the end of the day, our goal is to become a valuable part of your senior's daily routine. That way, we may help give them the highest quality of life possible. We know that staying at home is important for your loved one, and we are here to help make sure that is possible.
If you have been on the fence about non-medical home care, there has never been a better time than now to give your senior the care, assistance, and companionship they deserve.
Always Best Care in-home services are for older adults who prefer to stay at home but need ongoing care that friends and family cannot provide. In-home care is a safe, effective way for seniors to age gracefully in a familiar place and live independent, non-institutionalized lives. The benefits of non-medical home care are numerous. Here are just a few reasons to consider senior care services from Always Best Care:
According to AARP, 9 out of 10 seniors prefer to age in place within the comfort of their own home. With in-home care, seniors have a way to stay at home, receive the care they need, and maintain a sense of independence, improving overall wellness.
If you or a member of your family have assumed the role of caregiver for your senior loved one, you know how stressful the job can be. Between caregiver burnout and constant worry, being a family caregiver is hard. In-home care relieves your burden and gives you peace of mind knowing that your older family member is in expert hands.
Unlike nursing homes, where the staff and residents rotate frequently, seniors can foster new friendships and build bonds with their caregiver. Seniors who socialize on a regular basis are often happier, which fosters positivity and leads to increased wellbeing.
No two seniors need the same kind of in-home care assistance. That is why each of our Care Plans is tailored to meet our client's individual needs. We offer plans that cover everything from light housekeeping to more involved duties like transportation to doctor's appointments. Our Care Coordinators will work closely with you to develop a personalized plan to ensure your senior's needs are exceeded.
Always Best Care offers a full array of care options for patients at all levels of health. With our trusted elderly care services, your loved one will receive the level of care necessary for them to enjoy the highest possible quality of life.
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While it's true that some seniors have complicated medical needs that prevent them from staying at home, aging in place is often the best arrangement for seniors and their families. With a trusted caregiver, seniors have the opportunity to live with a sense of dignity and do so as they see fit - something that is unavailable to many older people today.
In-home care makes it possible for millions of seniors to age in place every year. Rather than moving to a strange nursing home, seniors have the chance to stay at home where they feel the happiest and most comfortable.
How much does a senior's home truly mean to them?
A study published by the American Society on Aging found that more than half of seniors say their home's emotional value means more than how much their home is worth in monetary value. It stands to reason, then, that a senior's home is where they want to grow old.
With the help of elderly care in Chesterfield, VA, seniors don't have to age in a sterilized care facility. Instead, they can age gracefully in the place they want to be most: their home. In contrast, seniors who move to a long-term care facility must adapt to new environments, new people, and new systems that the facility implements. At this stage in life, this kind of drastic change can be more harmful than helpful.
Institutional care facilities like nursing homes often put large groups of people together to live in one location. On any given day, dozens of staff members and caregivers run in and out of these facilities. Being around so many new people in a relatively small living environment can be dangerous for a seniors' health and wellbeing. When you consider that thousands of seniors passed away in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, opting for in-home care is often a safer, healthier choice for seniors.
Aging in place has been shown to improve seniors' quality of life, which helps boost physical health and also helps insulate them from viral and bacterial risks found in elderly living facilities.
For many seniors, the ability to live independently with assistance from a caregiver is a priceless option. With in-home care, seniors experience a higher level of independence and freedom - much more so than in other settings like a nursing home. When a senior has the chance to age in place, they get to live life on their own terms, inside the house that they helped make into a home. More independence means more control over their personal lives, too, which leads to increased levels of fulfillment, happiness, and personal gratification. Over time, these positive feelings can manifest into a healthier, longer life.
More independence, a healthier life, and increased comfort are only a few benefits of aging in place. You have to take into consideration the role of cost and convenience. Simply put, it's usually easier and more affordable to help seniors age in place than it is to move them into an institutional care facility. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, seniors who age in the comfort of their homes can save thousands of dollars per month.
In-home care services from Always Best Care, for instance, are often less expensive than long-term solutions, which can cost upwards of six figures per year. To make matters worse, many residential care facilities are reluctant to accept long-term care insurance and other types of payment assistance.
With Always Best Care's home care services, seniors and their families have a greater level of control over their care plans. In-home care gives seniors the chance to form a bond with a trusted caregiver and also receive unmatched care that is catered to their needs. In long-term care facilities, seniors and their loved ones have much less control over their care plan and have less of a say in who provides their care.
In-home care is a valuable resource that empowers seniors to age in place on their own terms. However, a big concern for many families and their loved ones is how much in-home care costs. If you're worried that in-home care is too expensive, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that it is one of the most affordable senior care arrangements available.
Typically, hiring an Always Best Care in-home caregiver for a few hours a week is more affordable than sending your loved one to a long-term care facility. This is true even for seniors with more complex care needs.
At Always Best Care, we will work closely with you and your family to develop a Care Plan that not only meets your care needs, but your budget requirements, too. Once we discover the level of care that you or your senior need, we develop an in-home care plan that you can afford.
In addition to our flexible care options, families should also consider the following resources to help offset potential home care costs:
When you or your senior loved one needs assistance managing daily tasks at home, finding a qualified caregiver can be challenging. It takes a special kind of person to provide reliable care for your senior loved one. However, a caregiver's role involves more than meal preparation and medication reminders. Many seniors rely on their caregivers for companionship, too.
Our companion care services give seniors the chance to socialize in a safe environment and engage in activities at home. These important efforts boost morale and provide much-needed relief from repetitive daily routines. A one-on-one, engaging conversation can sharpen seniors' minds and give them something in which to be excited.
At Always Best Care, we only hire care providers that we would trust to care for our own loved ones. Our senior caregivers in Chesterfield, VA understand how important it is to listen and communicate with their seniors. A seemingly small interaction, like a short hug goodbye, can make a major difference in a senior's day. Instead of battling against feelings of isolation, seniors begin to look forward to seeing their caregiver each week.
Understanding the nuances of senior care is just one of the reasons why our care providers are so great at their job.
Unlike some senior care companies, our caregivers must undergo extensive training before they work for Always Best Care. In addition, our caregivers receive ongoing training throughout the year. This training ensures that their standard of care matches up to the high standards we've come to expect. During this training, they will brush up on their communication skills, safety awareness, and symptom spotting. That way, your loved one receives the highest level of non-medical home care from day one.
While it's true that many seniors prefer to age at home, sometimes in-home care isn't the best fit. For those seniors and their families, choosing an assisted living facility makes more sense. Unfortunately, finding the optimal care facility is easier said than done in today's day and age. That's when Always Best Care's assisted living referral services begin to make a lot of sense.
Assisted living is a form of housing intended for seniors who require varying degrees of medical and personal attention. Accommodations may include single rooms, apartments, or shared living arrangements. Assisted living communities are typically designed to resemble a home-like environment and are physically constructed to encourage the independence of residents.
At assisted living communities, seniors receive help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, and eating. They may also benefit from coordination of services with outside healthcare providers, and monitoring of resident activities to ensure their health, safety, and well-being. Caregivers who work at assisted living communities can also provide medication administration and personal care services for older adults.
Other services offered within assisted living communities can include some or all of the following:
At Always Best Care, our representatives can match your senior's emotional, physical, and financial needs with viable assisted living communities nearby. Results are based on comparative data, so you can select the best choice for you or your loved one.
Always Best Care works closely with local senior living communities to gain valuable knowledge that we then use to help seniors and their loved ones make informed decisions. This information can include basic care and rent, resident availability, and services provided. Because Always Best Care is compensated by these communities, we provide senior living referral services at no extra cost to you.
For many seniors, moving into a senior living community revolves around how and when they want to make a transition to more involved care. Some seniors are more proactive about transitioning to independent living. Others choose to remain home until their care needs or other requirements are satisfied. Remember - our staff is here to help. Contact our office today to learn more about assisted living communities and how we can find a facility that exceeds your expectations.
The first step in getting quality in-home care starts with a personal consultation with an experienced Always Best Care Care Coordinator. This initial consultation is crucial for our team to learn more about you or your elderly loved one to discover the level of care required. Topics of this consultation typically include:
A discussion of your needs and how our trained caregivers can offer assistance in the most effective way
A draft of your care plan, which includes highly detailed notes and a framework for the care that you or your senior will receive
Discuss payment options and help coordinate billing with your insurance provider
Our caregivers are trained to spot changes that clients exhibit, like mental and physical decline. As your trusted senior care company, we will constantly assess and update your Care Plan to meet any new emotional, intellectual, physical, and emotional needs.
If you have never considered in-home care before, we understand that you and your family may have concerns about your Care Plan and its Care Coordinator. To help give you peace of mind, know that every team member and caregiver must undergo comprehensive training before being assigned to a Care Plan.
At the end of the day, we only hire the best of the best at Always Best Care. Whether you need home care in Chesterfield, VA 24-hours a day or only need a respite for a couple of hours, we are here to serve you.
When you're ready, we encourage you to contact your local Always Best Care representative to set up a Care Consultation. Our Care Coordinators would be happy to meet with you in person to get to know you better, discuss your needs, and help put together a personalized Care Plan specific to your needs.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced at the state capitol that Virginia and Commonwealth Fusion Systems will attempt to build the world’s first commercial fusion reactor in Chesterfield County by the early 2030s.“We need more power and this is part of the solution,” Youngkin told the crowd on Tuesday.Virginia is no stranger to nuclear energy. Today, about one-third of the commonwealth’s energy usage comes from large fission reactors — at Surry and North Anna — that have been around for decades. The ...
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced at the state capitol that Virginia and Commonwealth Fusion Systems will attempt to build the world’s first commercial fusion reactor in Chesterfield County by the early 2030s.
“We need more power and this is part of the solution,” Youngkin told the crowd on Tuesday.
Virginia is no stranger to nuclear energy. Today, about one-third of the commonwealth’s energy usage comes from large fission reactors — at Surry and North Anna — that have been around for decades. The U.S. Navy employs nuclear engineers in Norfolk to work on its submarine fleet. Universities across the state are researching nuclear and other clean energy sources. And Youngkin announced an effort this year to bring SMRs, basically small versions of the fission reactors we have today, online in the next decade.
But fusion reactors are different. They operate in a kind of inverse fashion to fission reactors, which split large, unstable molecules to harvest the energy that is stored in molecular bonds in the form of heat.
Fusion reactors take a lot of small molecules — usually abundant isotopes of hydrogen, like deuterium — and subject them to massive heat and pressure in the hopes that they’ll start smashing together and create larger molecules, converting some of their mass into heat energy in the process.
In other words, fusion reactors attempt to recreate the conditions found inside our sun.
That process produces low-level nuclear waste, which is safer and radioactive for a shorter period than the waste produced at existing nuclear facilities.
Lane Carasik, a VCU professor studying heat transfer technology for use in fusion reactors, said he’d feel safer living next to a fusion plant than a coal or natural gas plant.
“There are major environmental … concerns associated with fossil fuels that we are not addressing, and the concerns around fusion are minuscule in comparison to those,” Carasik said.
Once the fusion reaction begins, the plant would operate like a gas or fission plant — using the heat to create steam, which turns a turbine, generating electricity. Dominion Energy, which is leasing land to CFS that was previously considered for a natural gas power plant, will assist the company in that part of the process, while gaining expertise on fusion in return.
“Fusion isn’t easy,” said Alex Creely, director of tokamak operations for CFS. A tokamak is the type of fusion reactor that the Massachusetts-based company uses.
It requires complicated, expensive technology and a lot of energy to create the right conditions. The sun has gravity to help start the reaction; scientists and researchers have powerful electromagnets arranged in a the shape of a donut.
Until recently, nobody on Earth was able to create a fusion reaction that produced more energy than was put in to start it. But Creely’s confident that CFS can use new electromagnet technology to bridge the gap to commercial viability.
“We understand the science of [tokamaks],” Creely said. “And we're now combining that with a new magnet technology, which lets you build this machine smaller, more compact, more efficient and get it that step from where it's no longer a science experiment, to the point where it's a real, practical energy source that you can build.”
The magnet tech has been demonstrated. But CFS’ test reactor facility is still under construction in Massachusetts and likely won’t be ready for testing until 2027.
Carasik said that’s the barrier CFS will have to break to create a successful power plant.
“The integration of … the power conversion side of it, to the actual ‘We're generating plasma, we're maintaining plasma, we're transferring the heat to a different fluid,’ and then using that to spin a turbine. That has not been done,” Carasik said.
He said the governor and others are likely bullish on the technology because they see the need to bring more clean energy to Virginia. But even if the reactor doesn’t succeed — though Carasik said it likely will — engineers will learn a lot in the process.
“Just by building one of these and running one of them at this size will be incredibly useful to understanding how to overcome future designs of them,” Carasik said.
CFS founder Bob Mumgaard told the crowd gathered at the Capitol that the company had looked for its first location for years. Chesterfield rose to the top.
“We have a strong utility partner with Dominion, proximity to a grid interconnect, the right physical site attributes, access to the interstate and seaways and airports, customer demand for power in the region that's growing and really importantly, a strong talent ecosystem,” Mumgaard said.
Youngkin said he is excited about the 400-megawatt plant and added that it fits into his all-of-the-above energy agenda.
The governor said plants like this will one day contract directly with the commonwealth’s most energy-intensive facilities.
“I think it's a reasonable hypothesis that the growth in data centers in Virginia will very happily take the power that's generated at this point,” Youngkin said.
Victoria Higgins — who works with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a group opposed to Dominion’s planned Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center — said she’s excited about the fusion project, which will be located at the originally proposed site for CERC.
“We welcome creative, carbon-free energy projects when they are not being funded by ratepayers,” Higgins said on a phone call. “It’s a private investment and it’s carbon-free.”
If a direct power purchase agreement is established, that would likely protect Virginia ratepayers from the as-yet-undetermined costs of the new technology.
The plant is receiving some subsidies, according to Youngkin: The Virginia Department of Energy contributed $1 million out of “existing funds”; Chesterfield contributed $1 million for site work and pledged an additional $10 million over time; and the plant is benefiting from a sales and use tax exemption on equipment used by data centers, indoor farms and power plants.
The final timeline for the project is also undetermined, though CFS hopes for the facility to begin producing power by the early 2030s.
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Speaker of the House Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth jokes with Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion, following a press conference announcing that Chesterfield will host Commonwealth Fusion System’s first fusion energy power plant on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, Virginia.
Shaban Athuman / VPM News
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin gives remarks as Caren Merrick, Secretary of Commerce and Trade, looks on during a press conference announcing that Chesterfield will host Commonwealth Fusion System’s first fusion energy power plant on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, Virginia.
Shaban Athuman / VPM News
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin arrives to announce that Chesterfield will host Commonwealth Fusion System’s first fusion energy power plant on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, Virginia. The proposed facility would be one of the first in the world to generate fusion power.
Shaban Athuman / VPM News
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Speaker of the House Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, points at Gov. Glenn Youngkin as he presents a flag of Virginia to Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion, after announcing that Chesterfield will host Commonwealth Fusion System’s first fusion energy power plant on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, Virginia.
Shaban Athuman / VPM News
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin presents a flag of Virginia to Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion, after announcing that Chesterfield will host Commonwealth Fusion System’s first fusion energy power plant on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, Virginia.
Shaban Athuman / VPM News
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin winks to Speaker of the House Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, after presenting a flag of Virginia to Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion, during a press conference announcing that Chesterfield will host Commonwealth Fusion SystemÕs first fusion energy power plant on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, Virginia.
Shaban Athuman / VPM News
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Speaker of the House Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, chats with Chesterfield County Board of Supervisor member Kevin Carroll, Matoaca District, following a press conference announcing that Chesterfield will host Commonwealth Fusion System’s first fusion energy power plant on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, Virginia.
Shaban Athuman / VPM News
Virginia could soon make history as the home of the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant, state officials and private sector leaders announced Tuesday.Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a fusion power company founded in 2018 in Cambridge, Mass., unveiled plans to build the groundbreaking facility on a 100-acre site at James River Industrial Park in Chesterfield County. The plant, expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 150,000 homes — could be operational by the early 2030s.&ldq...
Virginia could soon make history as the home of the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant, state officials and private sector leaders announced Tuesday.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a fusion power company founded in 2018 in Cambridge, Mass., unveiled plans to build the groundbreaking facility on a 100-acre site at James River Industrial Park in Chesterfield County. The plant, expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 150,000 homes — could be operational by the early 2030s.
“Commonwealth Fusion Systems plans on building the world’s first grid scale commercial fusion power plant in the world, full stop, and it’s going to be right here in the commonwealth of Virginia,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said at a presentation of the undertaking at Richmond’s Patrick Henry Building.
Unlike traditional nuclear power plants that rely on fission, fusion replicates the energy-producing process of the sun, offering a cleaner and more sustainable power source. The project, which would occupy about 25 acres of the site, signals Virginia’s growing role in shaping future energy solutions.
The announcement comes as Virginia’s energy needs are surging, driven by the rapid growth of data centers that power big tech operations. These facilities consume enormous amounts of electricity and water to process and cool computer systems.
A report from the nonpartisan Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission (JLARC) released last week found that energy demand from data centers could triple from about 10,000 megawatts today to about 30,000 megawatts by 2040 if infrastructure, like new transmission lines, were already available.
Virginia’s two largest utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power Company, are already exploring small modular nuclear reactors to meet rising energy demands, with Dominion also investing in offshore wind, solar and natural gas.
Fusion power offers another path to clean energy, avoiding emissions that scientists link to climate change and its increasingly intense and frequent storms.
Fusion technology works by combining hydrogen isotopes — deuterium extracted from water and tritium from lithium — under extreme heat and pressure, using powerful magnets to fuse the elements. The process generates heat, which boils water to create steam that spins a turbine, producing electricity. The byproduct is helium.
“Our customers’ growing needs for reliable, carbon-free power benefits from as diverse a menu of power generation options as possible, and in that spirit, we are delighted to assist CFS in their efforts,” said Dominion Energy Virginia President Edward H. Baine, in a statement.
CFS selected the Chesterfield site after conducting a global search. The company will lease the land from Dominion Energy.
To secure the project, Virginia offered $1 million from the Virginia Energy Clean Energy Innovation Bank, $1 million from Chesterfield County, and a sales and use tax exemption for the plant’s equipment. The company has also received U.S. Department of Energy funding. Youngkin said the project would bring “billions” in economic development and create “hundreds” of jobs.
CFS is currently building its SPARC demonstration plant in Massachusetts, a project that will pave the way for the ARC technology planned for Chesterfield. While the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved a major milestone in 2022 by demonstrating fusion using lasers, CFS employs a different approach. Their technology relies on a donut-shaped device called a tokamak to confine and fuse molecules.
“You won’t need a pipeline to bring the fuel in, or a smokestack for the exhaust,” said CFS co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Bob Mumgaard.
Unlike fission, which splits heavy atoms like uranium to produce energy — and leaves behind radioactive waste — fusion creates energy by fusing light atoms, explained Alex Creely, CFS director of tokamak operations.
“One of the big advantages of fusion is that it doesn’t produce any long lived waste material, and there’s no risk of some kind of meltdown event,” Creely said. “It’s a very safe energy source — something that you can live right next to and feel very comfortable with.”
Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, said in a statement Tuesday that he will introduce legislation to define fusion energy in state code. The energy source would be allowed as “zero-carbon electricity” under the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a 2020 law aimed at decarbonizing the state’s electric grid.
“Since the VCEA’s passage, we have succeeded in driving energy innovation in the commonwealth, and today marks another important step in what has been a remarkably successful effort — a step that would not have been possible had Virginia declined or abandoned the opportunity and responsibility it took to lead in clean energy,” Sullivan said.
Youngkin emphasized that the project will be financed entirely by CFS, with no cost passed on to Dominion Energy ratepayers. The facility will operate as an independent l power producer, selling its electricity to specific customers through power purchase agreements or directly into the regional PJM Interconnection market.
“It’s a reasonable hypothesis that the growth in data centers in Virginia will very happily take the power that is generated at this plant,” Youngkin said.
Preston Bryant, senior vice president at McGuireWoods Consulting, which was involved in the site selection process, said Virginia was chosen in part because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined months ago that fusion technology does not require a federal license like fission and can instead be approved at the state level.
The project will still need several state permits, including a radioactive materials license from the Virginia Department of Health, and a certificate of convenience and public necessity from the State Corporation Commission.
Kristen Cullen, vice president of global policy and public affairs at CFS, said additional approvals may include an air permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for backup generators during emergencies and potentially a storm water discharge permit, depending on the site-design.
Bryant noted that it was “a coincidence” that the selected site was initially chosen by Dominion for a proposed natural gas plant before the utility relocated that project to the nearby, former coal-fired Chesterfield Power Station.
The announcement followed discussions with local environmental groups, which expressed some support for the project, but also raised questions about its impact.
“Considering rising energy demand in Virginia driven by data centers and that most folks in the environmental world are not in support of more gas infrastructure, SMRs or hydrogen energy, this seems like a promising solution, if and when it actually comes online,” said Melissa Thomas, senior organizer with Mothers out Front, a climate advocacy group.
Thomas also raised questions about whether the plant’s backup power would rely on gas-powered systems or electric alternatives.
Editor’s note: This story was corrected to explain the upcoming legislation from Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, and how fusion is allowed under the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
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A startup that was spun out of MIT is planning to build what it hopes will be the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion power plant in Chesterfield County.Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced Tuesday its plans to build a 400-megawatt fusion plant, and has identified a 94-acre property outside Chester for the project.The proposed power plant, which is known as ARC, is expected to be operational in the early 2030s. The facility is expected to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of abou...
A startup that was spun out of MIT is planning to build what it hopes will be the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion power plant in Chesterfield County.
Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced Tuesday its plans to build a 400-megawatt fusion plant, and has identified a 94-acre property outside Chester for the project.
The proposed power plant, which is known as ARC, is expected to be operational in the early 2030s. The facility is expected to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of about 150,000 homes. CFS declined to share a cost estimate for the project.
The company would build and operate the power plant at 1201 Battery Brooke Parkway, which is currently owned by Dominion Energy.
The undeveloped site had previously been eyed by Dominion for a natural gas plant called the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center, but now is expected to be leased by CFS for its fusion plant, though a lease agreement hasn’t been signed yet.
Kristen Cullen, vice president of global policy and public affairs at CFS, said the company spent a couple years looking for the right spot before it settled on Chesterfield County as the home to what it intends to be a history-making project.
“This has been a more than two-year global siting search that we embarked on to find the home to what will be not only Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ first fusion power plant, but the world’s first fusion power plant,” Cullen said.
Cullen expected that around 150 full-time employees would be needed to operate the plant when it first becomes operational.
The Chesterfield facility is anticipated to be CFS’s first power plant. The company is working on a prototype fusion machine called SPARC in Massachusetts that is slated to produce its first plasma, which is needed for nuclear fusion, in 2026.
CFS describes SPARC as the most advanced version of a machine called a tokamak, which is a donut-shaped device that uses magnetic fields to create plasma particles hot enough to fuse together, creating the conditions necessary for nuclear fusion to happen. The company is building its take on the tokamak design, which is intended to be smaller and cheaper than other tokamaks, at its campus in Devens, Massachusetts.
CFS calls itself the world’s largest private fusion company. It has more than 1,000 employees and says it has raised more than $2 billion in its quest to be the first to construct the world’s first, commercial-scale nuclear fusion plant.
The startup was founded in 2018 when it was spun out of MIT as a business venture to commercialize fusion power, which the company says would result in a cheap and safe means to meet the world’s growing appetite for electricity in an environmentally friendly way.
“In any sci-fi novel, movie, whatever, at least 20, 30 years in the future, what they’ll all have in common about energy is humans have mastered fusion,” said CFS Chief Commercial Officer Rick Needham. “It’s the end game. Our mission is to make that end game come sooner.”
Chesterfield Economic Director Garrett Hart said the CFS project stood to make Chesterfield a center for the fusion energy industry.
“It positions us well to be a central location for the creation of fusion power and all the industry, all the things associated with that. There’ll be scientists traveling from all over the world to see this facility and understand how it works. And this first facility will grow into more facilities,” Hart said.
Chesterfield anticipates it will provide a performance-based grant for the project, which hasn’t been finalized yet, Hart said.
CFS is getting a $1 million grant from the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank, a state program that supports clean-energy projects, along with $1 million in matching funds from Chesterfield, per a news release from the governor’s office.
The project still has local, state and federal permitting to secure, including a conditional-use permit from Chesterfield. The local permit application is expected to be reviewed by the Chesterfield Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors next year, with approval by the board potentially coming in the summer.
The Chesterfield plant would be plugged into the electrical grid and sell power through PJM, which is a regional power transmission organization that runs an electrical power market in 13 states, including Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
CFS anticipates it will sell the plant’s power to large commercial and industrial customers. While the Chesterfield plant is in its early stages, talks are underway with potential users now, Needham said.
“We are currently seeking those customers and we have been in lots of conversations with potential customers,” he said.
Nuclear fusion is pitched as a renewable clean energy solution. The process involves the collision and fusion of atomic nuclei. The reaction that takes place when nuclei bump into each other and fuse is how the sun generates its energy. Nuclear fusion does not result in long-lived, highly radioactive waste associated with the operation of traditional nuclear fission power plants and doesn’t create pollution.
“Fusion is the process that happens inside the stars. It’s the most common process in the entire universe,” CFS co-founder and CEO Bob Mumgaard said in his remarks during the project’s announcement event Tuesday afternoon. “It’s the thing that creates all the heat and light. On Earth, when we get it to work, we’ll use it to make electricity in fusion power plants. That electricity will be clean, it’ll be (reliable), it’ll be safe.”
How to recreate the process at scale with manmade technology has been researched for decades, and CFS and other firms around the world are racing to be first to figure out how to commercialize the process.
“Fusion has always been something that happened in places like universities and national labs. But the problems are bigger than that,” Mumgaard said. “We believe that we can take proven fusion machines that have been researched in those labs, combine them with new types of technology, strong magnets, and enable us to build power plants at a time scale we thought previously would take many decades, and to do that out in the world, commercially.”
The fusion plant was jointly announced by Gov. Glen Youngkin’s office and CFS. During the event held in the Patrick Henry Building in downtown Richmond, Youngkin hailed the project as a potentially history-making, “multibillion-dollar” investment, and said the plant was expected to have an operational life of 20 years or longer.
“This will add to our existing infrastructure in a way that I think will provide a new frontier, a new frontier for Virginia businesses and Virginia residents. My friends, the future can be seen in what Commercial Fusion Systems will be building,” Youngkin said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from Tuesday’s event and additional information and imagery.
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Every year, Chesterfield goes big for Tacky Lights. It was difficult to pick just five.The Richmond Times-Dispatch puts together the ...
Every year, Chesterfield goes big for Tacky Lights. It was difficult to pick just five.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch puts together the Tacky Lights List every year. But with so many houses on the list, it can feel pretty daunting. We're going to break it down for you with five great tacky light houses in select neighborhoods and counties around town.
Check out these twinkling lights in Chesterfield:
Take a tour through the cul-de-sac on Dawnridge Court in the Walton Park subdivision of Midlothian for over-the-top Tacky Lights. Each house is different — some have dancing lights, others have white lights and multi-colored lights, plus blow-ups, figures and much more. 12618 Dawnridge Court is one of the most decorated homes on the block.
The Irvine family works together every year to adorn their house, trees and yard with thousands of twinkling lights. There are over 100 blow molds, TV characters and more. Plus, the Irvines will be outside every night with hot chocolate and cider.
This beauty in the Walton Park neighborhood features over 40,000 twinkling lights that cover the yard and the house. There are also lots of inflatables and a Santa and reindeer homemade painted set from the 1950's.
This home has tons of lights, 40 inflatables and two projectors; one for a movie playing on a 17-foot-screen, and another one for holograms.
See Santa and his reindeer, flamingo friends, whimsical unicorns, and glowing lights on every square inch of property.
For more tacky light houses in Chesterfield, go to the Chesterfield link on our Tacky Lights Guide. For the full list, check out the RTD Tacky Lights List 2024.
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