Bull run Repurposed

September 24, 2025

Historic first: Claxton could become home to the world’s first commercial fusion power plant, a project TVA and Type One Energy hope will redefine clean-energy production.

Major investment: Type One plans to hire hundreds of engineers over the next few years as it develops a prototype at the former Bull Run Fossil Plant, with the goal of building a 350-megawatt fusion facility.

Local impact: Officials say the project could revive the Bull Run workforce, meet the region’s rising power demand and position Tennessee as a national leader in safe, reliable energy.



The Claxton community could be home to the world’s first commercial fusion power plant if everything goes well.

Tennessee Valley Authority President Don Moul and Type One Energy CEO Christopher Mowry last Friday signed a letter of intent supporting the fusion power plant, to be called Infinity Two, as Gov. Bill Lee and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally stood next to them.

The fusion plant will be a new type of nuclear reactor, involving atoms’ nuclei joining together as they do in the sun rather than splitting apart like they do at existing nuclear power plants.

Whether and when the fusion plant gets built still depends on Type One proving that this type of energy is commercially ready. Other factors include receiving TVA Board approval, regulatory review, and alignment with TVA’s least-cost planning processes and “American energy dominance strategy,” TVA stated in news release.

Type One plans to build prototypes in Bull Run Fossil Plant’s former turbine room of the technology it plans to use for the power plant.

After the new plant is built, staff will use the prototype to train, Mowry said.

Mowry told The Courier News that building and testing the prototypes could take three or four years from now.

“We’re going to be hiring hundreds of engineers over the next couple of years,” Mowry said of this early prototype period.

Eventually, however, TVA will be doing the hiring for the people to run the new plant.

Mowry said other power plant preparations need to start early to go through all of the necessary steps including permitting, precise location on the Bull Run grounds, cooling systems, and how it will connect to the grid.

Starting TVA’s preparations at the same time as Type One’s research allows for the company to break ground earlier.

While the location isn’t certain, Mowry said the new plant will be somewhere else on the Bull Run Fossil Plant grounds rather than within the existing former plant building.

He called the proposed new plant “incredibly exciting.”

“This whole time everybody has known that fusion has been the holy grail of energy,” he said. “This is the ultimate clean, safe, abundant source of energy.”

Scott Brooks with TVA Media Relations told The Courier News the demand for power in the region is increasing, despite TVA’s previous estimate of a decreased load as appliances became more efficient.

“Starting in 2021, everybody figured out that this region is a great place for people to live work and play,” he said, adding to people coming in from around the country.

He also said data centers with their high-power needs affected the estimate as well.

Mowry also spoke of the workers needed, comparing them to the types of workers who ran Bull Run Fossil Plant in the past.

“We will want to bring in the workforce that has been part of Bull Run since its inception,” he said. “We’re going to create that opportunity for the local community.”

He told reporters he was looking for university and national laboratory partnerships, as well as a supportive state.

After searching for locations in 2023, he said Tennessee’s Nuclear Energy Fund was the deciding factor. The program received $4.5 million from the state.

”Tennessee is ready-made to lead America’s energy independence, and today’s announcement further strengthens our position as a leader in safe, clean, and reliable energy,”Lee said in the news release.

“We are proud that the first U.S. commercial stellarator fusion project could be developed in Oak Ridge, creating high-quality jobs and driving continued economic growth and opportunity for Tennesseans.”

Infinity Two will be a first-generation 350 megawatts electric baseload power plant using Type One Energy’s stellarator fusion technology.

“The stellarator is currently the only fusion technology to have demonstrated stable, steady-state operation with high efficiency, characteristics, which are important for TVA and others in the industry who need to reliably generate on-demand power at competitive prices,” TVA stated in its release.

Mowry said the plant will have “no safety concern” with issues such as meltdowns, because it will use fusion rather than fission reaction.