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

  • Tokamaks | Different approaches around the world

    Look east, look west ... tokamak projects are underway in different parts of the world. All of them are benefiting from and complementing the pioneering work al [...]

    Read more

  • Construction site | A guide to work underway

    Just like the ITER worksite, drone photography is also making progress. This view of the ITER platform is the sharpest and most detailed of all those we have pu [...]

    Read more

  • Vacuum vessel repair | A portfolio

    Whether standing vertically in the Assembly Hall or lying horizontally in the former Cryostat Workshop now assigned to component repair operations, the non-conf [...]

    Read more

  • European Physical Society | ITER presents its new plans

    The new ITER baseline and its associated research plan were presented last week at the 50th annual conference of the European Physical Society Plasma Physics Di [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the week | The platform's quasi-final appearance

    Since preparation work began in 2007 on the stretch of land that was to host the 42-hectare ITER platform, regular photographic surveys have been organized to d [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Fusion world

Wendelstein 7-X resumes operation

The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator is up and running again, following a shutdown phase dedicated to equipping the machine for longer discharges and higher heating power.

A plasma discharge in the upgraded Wendelstein 7-X stellarator — not your usual D-shaped tokamak plasma... Photo: IPP/Wigner RCP (coloured black-and-white photo) (Click to view larger version...)
A plasma discharge in the upgraded Wendelstein 7-X stellarator — not your usual D-shaped tokamak plasma... Photo: IPP/Wigner RCP (coloured black-and-white photo)
The world's largest fusion device of the stellarator type is back in action. Plasma experiments have resumed after a 15-month shutdown phase, during which over 8,000 graphite wall tiles and ten divertor modules were installed in the plasma vessel. This high-tech cladding that will protect the vessel walls and allow higher temperatures and plasma discharges lasting 10 seconds.

The geometry of the new divertor, with plasma-facing tiles that conform exactly to the twisting contour of the plasma edge, is considered power plant relevant for the first time—particularly in the ratio of the divertor area to the plasma volume.

"We are therefore very excited that we are now able to investigate whether the divertor concept of an optimized stellarator can really work properly," says Project Head Professor Thomas Klinger.

All ten microwave transmitters of the microwave heating system have been brought on line, which will permit higher density and higher temperature plasmas and lead possibly to the enhanced thermal insulation of the plasma in the optimized device. New diagnostic instruments will also allow the observation of plasma turbulence for the first time.

The goal of the Wendelstein 7-X project is to investigate the suitability of the stellarator type of fusion device for a continuous-operation fusion power plant. Following the conclusion of main assembly in 2014 at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany, the machine achieved its first helium plasma in December 2015 and its first hydrogen plasma in February 2016.

 
Read the full press release on the IPP website.

return to the latest published articles