Towards participatory, socially-engaged design of fusion energy technologies

The last decade has been transformative for the development of fusion energy technologies with over 30 companies, supported by public and private funding, working to rapidly commercialize a range of fusion energy systems. Ongoing research at the University of Michigan suggests that while many communities across the country are expressing an interest in hosting clean energy facilities, they are strongly opposed to the traditional decide-announce-defend model of decision-making. Instead, these communities wish to clearly understand the purpose and characteristics of a potential facility and inform development decisions. Community representatives are urging technology developers not to make assumptions about what communities want but instead consult communities. This is especially important because while communities are likely to have shared preferences, many are likely to vary across communities. The specificity of these preferences suggests that clean energy technology facilities will likely need to be adapted to their various use cases and also that community consultation about the design of the facility will remain critical even after the completion of the initial facility.

Given these realities, in this work, we identify and describe opportunities for community engagement and input in the process of fusion energy technology design. The primary source of data for this work is interviews with members of the fusion research community as well as fusion energy technology developers. In future work, we will engage directly with communities likely to be impacted by the development of fusion energy technologies, including communities hosting fusion energy systems, as well as front and back-end fuel cycle facilities, to gather and compare their perspectives with those of researchers and technology developers, with the ultimate goal of convening participatory co-design sessions with host communities and technology developers.