Partnering to Improve Diversity in the Fusion Workforce: Year two of three

Attracting a broad array of talent is essential to growing the fusion energy workforce and succeeding in overcoming the scientific and technical challenges of rapidly developing fusion energy. We have completed the second year of our three-year project utilizing the FES-RENEW program. Four high quality candidates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) completed ten-week summer-internships in the Fusion Energy Division (FED) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 2024. Six, including three returning students, participated in 2025. Recruiting activity included ORNL staff visits to each HBCU to deliver introductory lectures on nuclear fusion and recruitment during the academic year. A 1-week intensive course at the nearby University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK) on plasma science and fusion technologies initiated the summer internship. The objective of this program is to establish a sustained "pipeline" of undergraduate students from the participating HBCUs (underrepresented in fusion science), through graduate opportunities (e.g. at UTK and ORNL), to careers in fusion. We present successes to date in the program as well as challenges and opportunities in the future to improve the experiences of our student participants to help accomplish the goal of FES-RENEW "to increase participation of underrepresented groups in FES's fusion and plasma science and technology research portfolio."