Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Fusion world | Japan and Europe inaugurate largest tokamak in the world

    It was 6:00 a.m. in La Bergerie, a former sheep barn located a few kilometres from ITER in the vast Château de Cadarache domain, and that had been converted [...]

    Read more

  • Stakeholders | ITER Director-General meets Prime Minister Kishida

    In Japan, the prime minister lives and works at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in central Tokyo, just a few blocks from the National Diet Building and [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the week | Season wrapping

    Although the travel distance is short, barely exceeding one hundred metres, the transfer of vacuum vessel sector #8 from the Assembly Hall, where it is presentl [...]

    Read more

  • In memoriam | Bernard Pégourié, physicist and mountaineer

    The worldwide fusion community mourns Bernard Pégourié, of France's Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (CEA-IRFM), who passed away on 25 November following [...]

    Read more

  • COP28 | Fusion is making a splash

    The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, opened on 30 November in Dubai's Expo City—a sprawling conference centre built two years ago for the W [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Preparation for operation at Wendelstein 7-X

Wendelstein 7-X aims to show that, like tokamaks, stellarators are also a suitable concept for power plants. (Click to view larger version...)
Wendelstein 7-X aims to show that, like tokamaks, stellarators are also a suitable concept for power plants.
After years of calculation, planning, component production and installation, the Wendelstein 7-X project entered a new phase in May 2014: at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany, preparations started for operation of the world's largest fusion device of the stellarator type.

Wendelstein 7-X aims to show that, like tokamaks, stellarators are also a suitable concept for power plants. The complex structure of its magnetic field—the result of sophisticated optimization calculations—will be produced by a system of 50 unconventionally shaped superconducting magnet coils, the veritable technical core of the device.

Able to operate through discharges lasting half an hour, they will contribute to demonstrating the essential advantage of stellarators: continuous operation.

Companies from all around Europe produced the components for Wendelstein 7-X and numerous research facilities were involved in construction of the device.

In the audience (from left to right, front row): Prof. A. Smith, PPPL, USA; Dr. Richard Hawryluk, PPPL, USA; Prof. Osamu Motojima, Director-General, ITER Organization; Erwin Sellering, Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; Prof. Dr. Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society; Prof. Dr. Sibylle Günter, Scientific Director of IPP; Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research. Also present (not pictured), the former Technical Director of Wendelstein 7-X, Rem Haange, currently head of the ITER Project Department. (Click to view larger version...)
In the audience (from left to right, front row): Prof. A. Smith, PPPL, USA; Dr. Richard Hawryluk, PPPL, USA; Prof. Osamu Motojima, Director-General, ITER Organization; Erwin Sellering, Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; Prof. Dr. Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society; Prof. Dr. Sibylle Günter, Scientific Director of IPP; Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research. Also present (not pictured), the former Technical Director of Wendelstein 7-X, Rem Haange, currently head of the ITER Project Department.
At the beginning of May the cryostat was closed and the first pumps started up. An inauguration ceremony was held on 20 May in the presence of a large audience of national and international experts and guests of honour, including ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, and Johanna Wanka, German Federal Minister of Education and Research.

If all goes well, Wendelstein 7-X will produce its first plasma in about a year. "We all know the trend of global development, the hunger for energy of emerging economies and emerging countries, the finite nature of natural resources, the need to curtail climate change and to live the principle of sustainability," said Professor Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister for Education and Research, in her keynote speech. "So when we talk about energy, we need research that keeps all options open. And one of these options is nuclear fusion. Wendelstein 7-X is an important step forward allowing us to better evaluate the "fusion option."

return to the latest published articles