August 21 - 27, 2025
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXV N o . 28
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
F.C. Schools ‘BE BRAVE’ RALLY Underway, Opening Day Draws 2,680 With Smooth Opening, New Superintendent Comments by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
In general accordance with expectations, opening day enrollment in the Falls Church City Public School system was reported at 2,680. According to FCCPS spokesman John Brett, the number “is higher than this time last year, but under projections. However, it is still early as we are enrolling students every day and will be for the next few weeks.” Opening day went swimmingly, a school spokesman told the News-Press, the first one for new Superintendent Dr. Terry Dade. Dade issued a statement about it all on Tuesday, which reads as follows: “Yesterday marked an exciting milestone as we welcomed students back to Falls Church City Public Schools for the 2025-26 school year. Walking through our hallways and seeing the energy, curiosity, and joy on students’ faces reminded me
Continued on Page 3
A RALLY AT MR. BROWN’S PARK in the 100 block of W. Broad urged passers by to “Be Brave” in standing for justice and democracy last Friday in an event at rush hour that touched thousands. The event was organized through a collaborative effort of two groups in Falls Church associated with the Indivisible nationwide Visibility Brigade movement, synchronized with similar efforts across the U.S. united by billboard drops from overpasses and other activities with the message, “Be Brave With Us, We’ll Stand With You.” (Photo: News-Press)
Unbelievable Potential of Fusion Power About to Be Realized
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
See Inside
With the key role of Falls Church’s own U.S. Rep. Don Beyer in the lead of the overall effort as the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Fusion Caucus in 2021, Dominion Virginia Power has subsequently taken a notable, if carefully scoped, step toward nuclear fusion energy by entering into a collaboration with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), the Massachusetts-based
MIT spinout developing fusion reactors, the News-Press has learned. Announced on December 17, 2024, the agreement is a non-financial partnership in which Dominion provides development and technical expertise and grants CFS leasing rights to a Dominion-owned site in Chesterfield County, Virginia, where CFS plans to build its first commercial fusion power plant, called ARC. CFS, for its part, will independently finance, build, own, and operate the facility.
The Chesterfield project is the centerpiece of CFS’s strategy to move fusion from lab breakthrough to grid resource in the early 2030s. The planned ARC plant is designed for roughly 400 megawatts of carbon-free electricity—enough to power around 150,000 homes— using high-temperature superconducting magnets to confine a deuterium-tritium plasma inside a compact tokamak. If built and operated as envisioned, ARC would be the world’s
first grid-scale commercial fusion plant, sited at the James River Industrial Center with an existing grid interconnection advantage. For Dominion, hosting and co-developing at a familiar site reduces siting risk and positions the utility to gain hands-on experience with fusion plant development without committing ratepayer dollars to an unproven asset. CFS’s path to ARC runs through
Continued on Page 4