Who is This Energy For?: An Ethnography of Fusion Energy and Inclusion

Fusion energy has been hailed as the “silver bullet” for climate change and non-carbon based energy production. It is clear that a global energy transition must happen within the next few decades, and fusion is one resource that could potentially accelerate that transition. Fusion’s increasing prominence amongst financial investors as well as the United States government has made more apparent the lack of diversity and inclusion not only within plasma physics, but energy production and distribution more largely. Will a clean energy transition necessitate a move away from capitalism’s extractive practices or is clean energy doomed to repeat the same violent mistakes of carbon production? As an anthropologist who has spent over a year studying the fusion community, DEI is an increasingly talked about, but a still relatively marginalized practice within institutions. This presentation explores what is necessary to increase diversity within the physics community, what must be considered in creating a more inclusive energy source, and how discourse around fusion and fusion financing influences our own abilities to imagine cleaner and more just futures.