Socio Economic Studies
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EUROfusion Social and Economic Studies (SES) offer insights into how society perceives and engages with fusion and assesses fusion potential in a rapidly evolving global energy system.
The SES team provides scientific analyses for key stakeholders to support strategic planning towards fusion deployment. Read more on the EUROfusion Workprogramme on Socio Economic Studies.
Why?
As a stable, carbon-free energy source, nuclear fusion will contribute to combating climate change and enhancing sustainable energy systems. However, its commercialisation faces scientific, technological, social, and economic challenges, requiring interdisciplinary collaboration.
What?
SES answers questions like:
- Will fusion come too late in a world moving towards renewables?
- Will fusion be publicly accepted?
Read here some of the most frequently asked questions raised by the general public, collected and analyzed as part of our research at SES, along with our answers.
How?
Since 2001, EUROfusion has united researchers across physical sciences, engineering, economics, and socio-environmental studies to identify the conditions for integrating fusion into future energy markets. This interdisciplinary effort is key to ensuring fusion energy meets societal needs and economic realities.
Qualitative Methods
Based on a direct dialogue with citizens and stakeholder, to gather views, interpretations, concerns, doubts and expectations
Quantitative Methods
To gather quantitative evidence on societal acceptance at a broader national
and/or European level.
Complementary Studies
To address aspects not directly covered by the research on energy scenario
Economic Studies
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Takeaways:
- By means of the EUROfusion TIMES model, SES can explore the role of fusion in the future global energy grid up to 2100.
- Fusion is present in the future energy mix in all scenarios working alongside renewables, to provide a diversified energy system
- Scenarios show that the ultimate share of fusion will depend on a complex interplay of many factors which include rate of fusion deployment, time of commercial availability and cost of fusion and renewables share.
- Other factors that might impact the share of fusion such as heat and hydrogen production, materials availability, fuel availability, financing schemes, strength of supply chain are investigated through complementary studies.
Social Studies
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Takeaways:
- Positive reactions by European citizens to fusion, but attitudes are still forming
- Core beliefs about benefits and risks of fusion broadly shared across different EU countries
- Support for fusion is not just a matter a knowledge, but a complex interplay of beliefs, emotions, perceptions of consequences
- Some questions and concerns persist
- need for continued engagement with the public and other stakeholders around fusion energy and its place in Europe’s future energy system
Frequently asked questions:
Will fusion come too late in a world moving towards renewables?
No, even with widespread use of renewables, fusion will play a crucial role by providing reliable and continuous electricity. Fusion will complement variable sources like wind and solar, helping to stabilize the energy system.
It’s, in fact, quite likely that renewables will be the key actors of the future energy mix – mainly because of the public negative attitude towards nuclear fission and of the delays of carbon capture and storage development far behind expectations. The image of a World where solar and wind power are able to cover the whole global electricity needs is so fascinating that the challenges of the transition towards it along with the inherent drawbacks of this options too often fall into the background. A full renewable energy system, equipped with proper energy storage devices, can be realized provided deep changes of power system infrastructures and related costs are accepted. Integrating nuclear fusion in this picture would enhance the energy system reliability and quite likely reduce the overall cost of electricity.
Will fusion be publicly accepted?
Public acceptance will grow as understanding improves. Problems of acceptability will be definitely overcome once fission and fusion will not be confused anymore. The distinction is still not clear within the general public, concerned about the occurrence of extreme accidents with large radioactivity releases.
Fusion reactions are intrinsically safe. They cannot lead to extreme accidents. Fusion reactions do not allow exponential temperature increase of the reactor core. Fusion involves only small amounts of radioactive material and doesn’t require transporting hazardous fuels. The mass of radioactive materials inside the reactor is many orders of magnitude lower than in fission reactors, which results in far less consequences of any possible accident. No transportation of radioactive fuels nor waste is needed.
Fusion plants will follow strict nuclear safety regulations.
Why are so many different fusion concepts emerging in recent years?
The urgency of the climate crisis and advances in technology have sparked renewed interest in fusion. At the same time, the long development timeline of large-scale projects like ITER has led to growing curiosity about alternative fusion paths that might deliver results sooner. Exploring different approaches reflects both technological progress and the pressure to accelerate the transition to clean energy.
People are getting more sensitive to environmental issues. According to the Special Eurobarometer 538, “Climate Change”, issued in May 2023, 9 out of 10 Europeans perceive “climate change” as the most serious problem facing the world today.
Climate strikes are spreading across the globe, climate legislations are gaining more importance in national policies and in parallel great effort is put in developing new technologies to face immediate urgencies.
All this can be read as a rising shared environmental responsibility that leads to adopt a wider energy perspective. In other words, people feel the urgency of relying on new, clean and reliable energy sources. Since nuclear fusion perfectly fits the role, the renewed interest on alternative fusion concepts that might reduce the wait is definitely justified. Achieving the goal of generating electricity from fusion reactions is a complex enterprise that requires an intense and shared scientific endeavor.
Does it make sense to invest in a technology that might not help address the urgency of the climate crisis, because its widespread deployment could still be decades away?
Yes, fusion offers the promise of large-scale, carbon-free electricity that is safe and steady. While it will not solve today’s energy crisis, investing now means preparing a solid, sustainable energy solution for the future.
Nuclear fusion is not a prompt solution to climate change: nuclear fission and renewables are already available and further developments are expected before fusion be available. Nevertheless, fusion is a safe and reliable technology that can deliver large and almost constant amounts of carbon-free electricity, without nuclear ashes and very limited production of activated materials. All these features make fusion attractive and worth the huge efforts and the long wait.
Do we know how much a fusion power plant will cost?
It’s too early for exact figures; there are too many open issues to provide reliable cost estimates. It would be more appropriate discussing on how much fusion power plants should cost. Current studies based on energy global scenarios prove that fusion can play a role in the energy market if costs can be competitive to advanced nuclear energy technologies – GenIII+ fission power plants. This implies smart choices in materials, reactor design and efficiency to meet both technical and economic constraints.
Webinar
Explore our work in the IAEA webinar on socio-economic studies. Watch the webinar!
The SES Team
Who we are:
- 20 researchers from 9 European countries
- 30 years of activity
- Team expertise and competences: - Nuclear Physics - Engineering - Energy Technology - Economics - Corporate Financing- Social Sciences - Psychology - Philosophy - Political Science - Science Communication
