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Antitrust lawsuit against General Dynamics, HII revived in appeals court

Two former naval engineers who claimed that , and more than a dozen other government contractors and shipbuilders illegally agreed to not poach each other’s employees will receive a rehearing, a federal appeals court panel ruled this month.

A two-judge majority reversed the federal judge’s 2024 dismissal and remanded the case for rehearing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The plaintiffs said in the , filed in October 2023, that executives at 20 defendant corporations had an “unwritten gentleman’s agreement” to not actively recruit other companies’ employees, and that this led to lower wages for naval engineers. Although the lawsuit covered the period beginning in 2000, the complaint said the “no-poach conspiracy” likely dated back to the 1980s.

Among the defendants are Virginia-based , General Dynamics Information Technology, Serco and CACI International, as well as parent companies and General Dynamics.

The class action lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge last year, but it was revived by a split appeals court panel May 9, according to court documents.

In the ruling, the two-judge majority wrote that the defendants “allegedly covered up their no-poach conspiracy by, among other things, ‘carefully avoiding putting anything in writing’ and using coded language to refer to it. That meets the affirmative-acts standard.”

However, the chief judge wrote in a dissenting opinion that the plaintiffs, Susan Scharpf and Anthony D’Armiento, did not meet the statute of limitations on their claims.

In his dissent, Judge Albert Diaz, chief circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, noted that Scharpf and D’Armiento worked in the naval shipbuilding industry “from 2007 to 2013 and 2002 to 2004, respectively. In 2023, they sued 17 defendants on behalf of themselves and a putative class consisting of ‘all persons employed as naval architects and/or marine engineers.”

He adds, “The majority doesn’t simply accept the plaintiffs’ allegations as true; it does the plaintiffs’ work for them… Plaintiffs alleging a conspiracy don’t get a free pass on time-barred claims.”

General Dynamics said Thursday it had no comment on the decision, and HII issued the following statement: “As set forth in our filing last week, we continue to believe the district court’s decision to dismiss was legally accurate, and we will continue to vigorously defend this position. HII is committed to compliance in all aspects of its business — its robust compliance program and maintaining an ethical culture at all levels of the company is critical to the long-term success of our company.”

According to the 2023 lawsuit, five consulting firms named as defendants were purchased by larger businesses with Virginia ties: Gibbs & Cox, now owned by Leidos; John J. McMullin Associates, owned by Serco; CSC’s naval engineering unit, now owned by CACI; and AMSEC, now owned by HII.

Charlottesville Chamber announces new president and CEO

The Regional of Commerce has found its new and — ending a search process that began in August 2024.

The chamber announced Tuesday that it has promoted Charlottesville native Andrea Copeland, who has been the chamber’s interim CEO for about a year, to president and permanent CEO, effective immediately.

“Andrea has deep connectivity with our membership,” Jonathan Chasen, chair of the chamber’s board of directors, said in a statement. “As interim CEO, she has demonstrated a unique blend of strategic insight, collaborative spirit and a profound understanding of our region’s needs.”

Copeland joined the chamber in 2012 and has since taken on numerous leadership roles, including of leadership for Charlottesville, director of member education services and .

Former President and CEO Natalie Masri departed from the role on Jan. 16, 2024, and Rebecca Ivins — who was previously chairwoman of the board — succeeded her in an interim capacity. Copeland stepped in as interim CEO last spring, Chasen said.

On Aug. 20, 2024, the chamber announced it had launched the search process for its next president and CEO.

Mariane Asad Doyle, vice chair of the chamber’s board of directors, said in a statement that Copeland is highly respected in the Charlottesville business community and that throughout the search process, “members consistently expressed strong support for her promotion.”

Copeland is on boards and committees for several organizations, including the Community Investment Collaborative, Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau, Central Virginia Partnership for Economic Development and the Center for Nonprofit Excellence.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Copeland has a bachelor’s degree in human services counseling from Old Dominion University. She also received an Institute for Organization Management designation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2023. She completed the Certificate in Chamber Management program offered by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives in 2024.

“I am honored and excited to serve as the next president and CEO of our chamber,” Copeland said in a statement. “The Charlottesville community is special to me. It’s a region full of resilience, innovation and opportunity. I’m looking forward to working in partnership with our board, staff, members and community stakeholders to expand our chamber’s impact through membership, advocacy and economic growth.”

The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce advocates for businesses in the greater Charlottesville region. It has about 680 members, primarily located in Charlottesville and .

Fed minutes: Uncertainty ‘elevated’ as risks of higher inflation and unemployment rise

SUMMARY:

  • Fed leaves interest rates unchanged at May 6-7 meeting.
  • Officials more concerned about inflation than unemployment.
  • Cited Trump tariffs as a factor influencing inflation risk.
  • Fed minutes show officials believe inflation could persist.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials agreed earlier this month to hold off on any interest-rate moves while they evaluated the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs on inflation, unemployment, and the broader economy.

According to minutes from their May 6-7 meeting, released Wednesday, “almost all” of the 19 officials that participate in the Fed’s meetings on policy saw a risk that “inflation could prove to be more persistent than expected.” The policymakers showed greater concerns about higher inflation than rising unemployment, the minutes showed, a key reason they left rates unchanged.

Their decision flew in the face of Trump’s repeated calls to reduce borrowing costs because, in his view, there is “NO INFLATION.” The central bank, led by Chair Jerome Powell, cut its key rate three times last year to about 4.3%. Federal Reserve staff economists said during the meeting that inflation “remained elevated,” the minutes showed.

Trump’s tariffs have created a dilemma for the Fed because the duties could both raise inflation — which the Fed would typically fight with higher interest rates — and slow the economy and push up unemployment, which the central bank usually tries to counter with lower rates.

Officials “judged that downside risks to employment and … upside risks to inflation had risen, primarily reflecting the potential effects of tariff increases,” the minutes said.

Since the meeting, many officials have underscored that the Fed may have to wait for some time before making any further moves with interest rates.

Policymakers said there was “considerable uncertainty surrounding the evolution of trade policy” and its impacts on the economy, the minutes said.

“Taken together, (officials) saw the uncertainty about their economic outlooks as unusually elevated,” the minutes said.

At the same time, at least some Fed officials expressed a range of concerns that tariffs would likely raise prices in the months ahead. Many policymakers said that their surveys and discussions with business leaders suggested that companies were likely to pass at least some or all of the cost of the extra duties on to consumers. Several of the officials said that companies not affected by the tariffs could seek to raise their prices if other companies did so.

And the fact that the economy recently experienced the highest inflation in 40 years in 2022 suggested that companies might be more willing to raise prices than previously, when consumers had little experience of inflation, several officials said.

Newport News’ Jefferson Lab appoints new director

The U.S. ‘s in , commonly known as , will soon have new leadership.

The Newport News-based lab announced Wednesday that has been appointed as its next , effective June 30. He is succeeding Kimberly Sawyer, who has held the role since August 2024 and recently announced she is stepping down.

“I’m honored to join Jefferson Lab at such an exciting time,” Dilling said in a statement. “The lab has an extraordinary legacy in nuclear physics and accelerator science, and I look forward to working with its exceptional staff to advance discovery, innovation and excellence in operations in service of the nation’s scientific mission.

Dilling most recently was the associate laboratory director for neutron sciences at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), leading research at the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Spallation Neutron Source. At ORNL, he led efforts to improve the lab’s capabilities in quantum information science and material sciences. He also developed the science drivers for the SNS Second Target Station, a new $2 billion DOE project.

Before ORNL, Dilling spent more than 20 years at TRIUMF, Canada’s national particle accelerator center, overseeing molecular and material sciences as well as the science and user programs in nuclear and particle physics.

Dilling holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Heidelberg in Germany and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, as well as a DOE Oppenheimer Leadership Fellow. He has also been involved with numerous international advisory boards and scientific committees.

“Jens is an outstanding scientist and leader whose vision and experience make him the ideal person to guide Jefferson Lab into the future,” Sean J. Hearne, and of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, said in a statement. SURA operates Jefferson Lab through a limited liability company, Jefferson Science Associates.

In March, the DOE announced that Secretary of Chris Wright approved a 12-month extension of the contract for Jefferson Science Associates to continue managing and operating the Jefferson Lab in Newport News after its contract was initially set to expire May 31. The department said in March it anticipates initiating a competition for a new contract during the third quarter of fiscal 2025.

Jefferson Lab is one of 17 DOE national laboratories and is home to the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, which supports the research of more than 1,650 scientists worldwide.

Army training command headquarters to relocate from Virginia to Texas

SUMMARY:

  • The ‘s Training and Doctrine Command () will move its headquarters from in to Austin, Texas, as part of a merger with the Futures Command to form the new Army Transformation and Training Command
  • The relocation follows a directive from Secretary of Defense aimed at consolidating functions, eliminating redundancies and reducing “wasteful” spending
  • Although the headquarters will move, it remains unclear how many personnel or functions will relocate
  • TRADOC leadership has emphasized that no final decisions have been made and that operations at Fort Eustis continue. More details are expected to be available in June

The (TRADOC) will soon move its headquarters from Fort Eustis in Newport News to Austin, Texas — but questions linger about how many military and civilian staff will be impacted and which of the command’s functions will relocate.

The move stems from a directive from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to transform and streamline the military and eliminate “wasteful spending.” In an April 30 memo from Hegseth to senior Pentagon leadership, he directed the Secretary of the Army to merge the Army Futures Command (AFC) in Austin with TRADOC as a way to “downsize, consolidate, or close redundant headquarters.”

On May 7, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee that the new, merged command — called the Army Transformation and Training Command — will be headquartered in Austin.

“Having a whole bunch of headquarters doesn’t make things go faster,” George said. “I would argue that, you know, streamlining that will help. … Right now, we have all these different functions that are trying to do similar things in two commands, and we need to combine those together.”

TRADOC, created on July 1, 1973, under Gen. William E. DePuy, supports the Army by training soldiers and support units. It oversees 32 Army schools organized under 10 Centers of Excellence, each focused on a separate area of expertise within the Army.

The Army states that these centers train more than 750,000 soldiers and service members annually.

In 2011, TRADOC moved its headquarters from Hampton’s Fort Monroe to Fort Eustis, after Fort Monroe ceased to be an Army post under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. TRADOC oversees the Center for Military History, the Center for Initial Military Training and the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth.

TRADOC said in a news release last week that while it has been announced that the new command’s headquarters will be located in Austin, no decisions have been made regarding the relocation of specific functions or personnel. The command says, “Reports suggesting otherwise are speculative and not based on official decisions.”

Maj. Chris Robinson, a TRADOC spokesperson, says that the command is a large organization with more than 35,000 military and civilians worldwide. Of this, approximately 2,000 are based at Fort Eustis, and of those, about 800 personnel are tied to the headquarters component of TRADOC.

The command says TRADOC continues to operate at Fort Eustis.

“We know there are questions in the community, and we want to be clear — TRADOC isn’t going anywhere right now,” Gen. Gary M. Brito, its commanding general, said in a statement. “Our mission continues, our people remain essential, and we will share updates when decisions are made.”

Robinson said more information on the merger should become available in mid-June.

“In October, we will see a new command form, where a new commanding general will also take reins of both organizations,” he said in a statement.

Democratic U.S. Rep. , who represents the base in Congress, expressed concerns about the merger of the two commands.

“As the representative from Newport News, I will be seeking more information and clarification from the Army on how we can minimize the impact this will have on service members in Hampton Roads,” Scott said.

However, , a fellow Democrat, indicated that the impact of the merger on Newport News shouldn’t be too significant.

“Army leadership told me that despite the merger of TRADOC and Army Futures Command, TRADOC operations will remain at Fort Eustis with no significant change to personnel levels,” Kaine said. “This will provide continuity for servicemembers, their families, contractors and the Hampton Roads community. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I will continue to monitor the situation to make sure these assurances are upheld.”

Macy’s trims 2025 forecast amid cautious shoppers

SUMMARY:

  • Macy’s Q1 profit and sales slipped
  • More due to
  • Macy’s meets most performance expectations
  • mentions diversifying product origin to offset tariffs

NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s sales and profit slipped in its first quarter and the , citing more cautious customers and the impact that a trade war launched by the U.S., trimmed its profit forecast for 2025.

The New York retailer, however, topped most performance expectations for the first three months of the year and maintained its annual sales forecast.

Yet Macy’s CEO said that after seeing almost no price increases linked to tariffs in the first quarter, some “limited” price increases are appearing now, leading to the more cautious annual profit outlook.

“I think it’s important to understand that we are not just broadly increasing price,” Spring said in a conference call Wednesday. “We’re being incredibly surgical about the situation with tariffs.”

The company is diversifying the origin of its products as well, and will pull items when the math doesn’t work, he said.

About 20% of Macy’s products came from China at the end of its last fiscal year. Private brands sourced approximately 27% from China, down from 32% last year.

“With the recent announcement of these tariffs, we’ve renegotiated orders with suppliers,” Spring said. “We’ve canceled or delayed orders where the value proposition is just not where it needs to be.”

Shares rose 1% Wednesday.

Sales at Macy’s, which also owns upscale Bloomingdale’s and the Bluemercury cosmetics chain, dropped to $4.79 billion, from $5 billion a year earlier. That’s better than the $4.42 billion that analysts polled by FactSet expected.

Comparable sales, which include those online, dipped 2%. There was comparable store sales growth at Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury.

Neil Saunders, managing of GlobalData, said it wasn’t a bad quarter for Macy’s, particularly as the retailer closes underperforming locations.

Macy’s said previously that it would close 66 stores, mostly in the first quarter.

“The 2.0% dip in comparable sales is below market growth but is not entirely unexpected,” Saunders wrote. “It is also, barring the robust holiday quarter, a somewhat better performance than Macy’s delivered across most of the last fiscal year.”

For the period ended May 3, Macy’s earned $38 million, or 13 cents per share. That compares with $62 million, or 22 cents per share, a year ago.

Stripping out one time charges, earnings were 16 cents per share, which topped Wall Street’s estimate by a penny.

The company stuck by its 2025 sales forecast which ranged from $21 billion to $21.4 billion. But it now expects full-year adjusted earnings between $1.60 and $2 per share. Its prior forecast was for an adjusted profit of $2.05 to $2.25 per share.

Industry analysts had been projecting full-year sales of $21.03 billion and an adjusted per-share profit of $1.91.

Macy’s and other retailers are wrestling with uncertainty about tariffs which are making it difficult to plan. The same goes for many American consumers who have are growing increasingly uncomfortable about the U.S. economy and watching their spending.

American Eagle Outfitters withdrew its annual financial outlook earlier this month citing “macro uncertainty” and said it would write down $75 million in spring and summer merchandise.

Ross Stores withdrew its forecast last week.

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, got a public scolding from Donald Trump this month after it said that it has already raised prices on some items and would have to do so again this summer. Trump told the retail giant that it should “eat” the additional costs.

Target’s sales fell more than expected in the first quarter and it warned they will continue to flag this year.

Home Depot, too, said that it will eat some of the costs but that some goods heavily impacted by the trade war will no longer be on shelves.

Trump’s threatened 145% import taxes on Chinese goods were reduced to 30% in a deal announced May 12, with some of the higher tariffs on pause for 90 days. Trump on Friday threatened a 50% tax on all imports from the European Union as well as a 25% tariff on smartphones unless they’re made in America.

On Sunday, however, Trump said that the U.S. will delay implementation of a 50% tariff on goods from the EU until July 9 to negotiate.

Spring, Macy’s CEO, said there has been some success with vendors on lowering prices, but the department store is absorbing some costs as well.

“We’re making selective price increase in selective brands, selective categories, because we believe the value equation for the customer is still very relevant,” Spring said. “So some of the impact on our gross margin this year is going to be around the tariffs, but we’re also investing in getting market share because we really do believe as we get into the back half of the year, that price value dimension is going to be very critical.”

Wall Street drifts as the countdown ticks toward Nvidia’s earnings report

SUMMARY:

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting on Wednesday, a day after leaping back within a few good days’ worth of gains from their all-time high.

The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in afternoon trading after flipping from an early, modest gain. It’s still within 4% of its record after charging higher amid hopes that the worst of the turmoil caused by  Donald Trump’s trade war may have passed. It had been roughly 20% below the mark last month.

The Industrial Average was down 94 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:28 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was mostly unchanged.

The next big test for Wall Street will come after trading ends for the day, when market heavyweight Nvidia will report its latest results. Expectations are high for the bellwether of the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. So are worries that its stock price may have run too high, even after it has largely stalled this year.

Nvidia edged up by 0.7%.

Macy’s swung between gains and losses through the morning after reporting milder drops in revenue and profit than analysts expected for the latest quarter. The retailer also maintained its forecast for revenue this year, but it cut its profit forecast in part because of tariffs and some moderation of spending by consumers.

Its stock was most recently up 1.3%.

Several other retailers also delivered better-than-expected results for the latest quarter in the morning. Abercrombie & Fitch soared 16.5% after its profit and revenue both topped analysts’ expectations. Fran Horowitz credited broad-based growth across its business around the world, and strength for its Hollister brand offset weakness for its Abercrombie brand.

Dick’s Sporting Goods added 2.1% after it likewise topped analysts’ expectations for the latest quarter, and it stood by its financial forecasts it earlier gave for the full year.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Okta, which fell 13.7% even though the identity and access management company reported better results for the latest quarter than Wall Street expected. Analysts called it a solid performance, but investors may have been looking for even more after its stock came into the day up nearly 60% for the year so far.

Video-game retailer GameStop fell 7.2% after saying it had bought 4,710 bitcoin, which is worth more than $510 million at its current price. The company said in late March that it could begin buying bitcoin to store some of the cash in its treasury.

Later Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its meeting earlier this month, when it left its benchmark lending rate alone for the third straight time. Officials for the U.S. central bank cited an increased risk of higher unemployment and inflation for the U.S. economy, in part due to Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were modestly lower across much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea was an exception, where the Kospi jumped 1.3% thanks in part to gains for Samsung Electronics and other companies.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.48% from 4.43% late Tuesday.

Sharp swings in the bond market last week rattled investors after Treasury yields jumped in part on worries about the U.S. government’s rapidly rising debt levels. Such worries have also hit Japan, where a Wednesday auction of 40-year Japanese government bonds drew less interest from potential buyers than it’s seen since since July.

After years of pumping money into the economy through hefty bond purchases, Japan’s central bank has been gradually cutting back, undermining demand at a time when other institutional investors also have been buying fewer Japanese government bonds.

___

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Leidos acquires Chantilly AI tech biz for $300M

Reston-based federal contractor announced Wednesday it has acquired , a -based company that builds -powered cybersecurity tools for defense customers, for $300 million.

This is Leidos’ first in more than two years and its first since Thomas A. Bell became the Fortune 500 defense, aerospace and IT firm’s .

“Kudu’s ability to generate new cyber capabilities with AI perfectly complements our strategy to rapidly grow differentiated offensive cyber technology capabilities,” Bell said in a statement. “This acquisition underlines Leidos’s commitment to continue to build smarter full-spectrum cyber capabilities, so that the U.S. and its allies dominate the cyber warfighting domain.”

The all-cash purchase closed May 23, Leidos said in its announcement.

Kudu Dynamics was founded in 2013 and has worked with the Department of Defense, focusing on automated targeting, scalable hardware reverse engineering and generation of nonkinetic effects, which allow forces to disrupt adversaries with cyberattacks or other means that minimize casualties.

“We’re excited to deliver the next level of capabilities to our customers as we bring together the highly innovative cyber professionals and disruptive technologies of Kudu with the scale, resources and experience of Leidos,” said Kudu Dynamics founder and CEO Mike Frantzen. “In Leidos, we’ve found a partner who shares our ethic of purposeful innovation in support of our nation’s most critical missions.”

Frantzen will continue to lead Kudu’s 170-employee team as a wholly owned subsidiary in Leidos’ national security sector, a Leidos spokesperson said Wednesday.

The acquisition comes as Leidos has focused more attention on artificial intelligence, including appointing its first chief AI officer, Ron Keesing, in July 2024.

Leidos has 47,000 employees worldwide, and in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 3, it reported $16.7 billion in revenue. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security struck a costly blow against the federal contractor, terminating a $2.4 billion IT and cybersecurity contract awarded last year, known as the Agile Cybersecurity Technical Security (ACTS) contract.

Pratt & Whitney machinists end 3-week strike after approving a new contract

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — About 3,000 machinists at jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut approved a new four-year contract Tuesday, ending a three-week strike over wages, job security and other issues.

Union members were expected to return to work Wednesday after 74% of them voted in favor of the new deal, according to locals 1746 and 700 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Arlington, Virginia-based RTX Corp., makes engines for commercial and jets, including the GTF line for Airbus commercial jets and the F135 for the military’s F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft fleet.

The union said the new contract, which runs to May 2029, guarantees continued operations at the company’s East Hartford and Middletown plants through 2029. It also includes a 6% wage increase the first year, followed by raises of 3.5% in 2026 and 3% in both 2027 and 2028. Retirement benefits also were improved, the union said.

“This agreement includes real gains for our members and proves what we can accomplish when we stick together,” Wayne McCarthy, of Local 700, said in a statement.

The company said in a statement that the contract “recognizes the skill and dedication of our workforce by keeping them among the highest compensated in their field, while ensuring the company is well-positioned for the future.”

Union members began picketing in East Hartford and Middletown on May 5, after about 77% of union members voted to approve their first strike since 2001.

Fusion power plant seeks zoning permit in Chesterfield

SUMMARY:

  • has applied for a conditional use permit to build a 400-megawatt fusion plant in County.
  • Facility expected to be world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion
  • Construction planned for late 2020s; operations expected to start in early 2030s.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems has filed an application with for a permit to build the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant in the county.

The Massachusetts-based company announced plans to build the 400-megawatt fusion facility, dubbed ARC, in December 2024. The power plant would likely cost more than $2.5 billion, according to Chesterfield’s economic development , Garrett Hart.

The project would be located at 1201 Battery Brooke Parkway in the James River Industrial Center, a site owned by Dominion . has signed an option-to-lease agreement for the site, according to spokesperson Christine Dunn.

CFS filed an application with the county on May 21 for a conditional use permit for the approximately 94-acre site. The case does not yet have a scheduled public hearing date with the county planning commission.

CFS expects the plant to produce up to 400 megawatts of carbon-free energy, enough to power large industrial projects or about 150,000 homes. The company expects to sell ARC-generated power to large industrial/commercial customers through purchase power agreements, according to a county document.

CFS plans to begin construction in the late 2020s and start operations in the early 2030s. ARC is designed to run for 20 years or more, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in December 2024.

Spun out of MIT in 2018, CFS is one of more than 40 companies currently pursuing fusion technologies and says it is the largest private fusion company in the world. It has raised more than $2 billion in capital from high-profile investors including Google, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Tiger Global Management, Khosla Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital. CFS’ Series B2 round has raised more than $1 billion and is now targeting between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, Axios Pro reported in mid-May.

The company is building a fusion demonstration machine, nicknamed SPARC, at its headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. CFS began assembling the machine’s tokamak — a fusion device that uses electromagnets to create the right conditions for fusion energy — in March. SPARC will begin commissioning in 2025 and start operations in 2026, according to CFS’ application.

ARC will use magnetic fields for the fusion process. In the process, two forms of hydrogen — deuterium and tritium — fuse, creating helium and releasing neutrons. A “molten salt liquid ‘blanket’ surrounding the plasma will capture the energy of the neutrons in the form of heat,” according to CFS’ zoning application. The molten salt then circulates through heat exchangers — systems that transfer heat between fluids — to produce steam, which turns a turbine connected to an generator.