Fostering a Diverse and Global Workforce Pipeline

Fusion energy powers the sun and stars. Fusion occurs when two light elements combine to form a larger element, releasing vast amounts of energy in the process. Unlike in the stars, where immense heat and gravitational pressures sustain fusion reactions for billions of years, creating the conditions for fusion reactions on Earth requires extreme temperatures and pressures. At these conditions, matter is in the plasma state. A variety of approaches are being pursued to create and control fusion plasmas on Earth. These extreme conditions require innovative ideas and diverse skill sets to accelerate the path to fusion commercialization. As the world is racing to design and build first of a kind fusion power plants, we will need to rapidly grow a diverse workforce. 

The interdisciplinary nature of commercializing fusion energy will require a robust, diverse and inclusive global fusion workforce composed of people from around the world with a wide variety of educational backgrounds, from artists and welders to lawyers and physicists and engineers. Some of the unique skills needed for fusion energy require hands-on experience in ultra high vacuum environments, pulsed power engineering, precision advanced and additive manufacturing, developing, the ability to navigate an emerging regulatory framework, etc. Modern training programs will be needed that are capable of supporting these needs through public-private partnerships capable of addressing short-term development challenges and long-term development solutions. Training programs will need to be flexible enough to facilitate student and professional training and exchange programs to enable mutual learning from the broad fusion ecosystem. 

There are a variety of methods to build a diverse workforce, from developing training and assistantship programs or educational hubs to networking platforms to engage people working in other industries who may be interested in joining the efforts to support the growing fusion energy technology industry. Since the fusion energy systems will be large socio-technical systems, this will require cultural competence to build a diverse and inclusive workforce capable of developing these systems to be in service of society and the environment while supporting a just and equitable energy transition. 

The solutions to build a robust, diverse and inclusive global fusion workforce will need to be grounded in evidence-based best practices and provide methods to monitor and assess outcomes.