(Adds governor's quotes and context)

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - The United States must

expedite its development of fusion energy or risk falling behind

China on energy dominance, said Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin

at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston on Tuesday.

Virginia is home to the world's biggest hub of energy-hungry

data centers, with about 70% of the world's internet traffic

routing through the state.

"We've got to drive hard to accelerate fusion, otherwise

China will," Youngkin said during a panel discussion at the

conference alongside Virginia utility Dominion Energy ( D ) CEO

Robert Blue and Bob Mumgaard, chief of Commonwealth Fusion

Systems.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced in December that it

planned the first utility-scale fusion power plant, which it

would build in Virginia.

Fusion is the reaction that fuels the sun and which

scientists are trying to replicate on Earth with lasers or

magnets.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney and Tim Gardner; Editing by Tom

Hogue and Muralikumar Anantharaman)