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

  • Vacuum components | Shake, rattle, and... qualify!

    A public-private testing partnership certified that ITER's vacuum components can withstand major seismic events. Making sure the ITER tokamak will be safe in th [...]

    Read more

  • Feeders | Delivering the essentials

    Like a circle of giant syringes all pointing inward, the feeders transport and deliver the essentials to the 10,000-tonne ITER magnet system—that is, electrical [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the week | It's FAB season

    It's FAB season at ITER. Like every year since 2008, the Financial Audit Board (FAB) will proceed with a meticulous audit of the project's finances, siftin [...]

    Read more

  • Disruption mitigation | Final design review is a major step forward

    The generations of physicists, engineers, technicians and other specialists who have worked in nuclear fusion share a common goal, dedication and responsibility [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the week | Like grasping a bowl of cereal

    Contrary to the vast majority of ITER machine components, the modules that form the central solenoid cannot be lifted by way of hooks and attachments. The 110-t [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Fusion world

Science to resume at Wendelstein 7-X

Improved equipment on Wendelstein 7-X will permit the stellarator device to achieve new scientific heights in a campaign planned to begin this autumn.

Wendelstein 7-X at the Greifswald branch of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is the world's largest fusion device of the stellarator type. A ring of 50 superconducting coils with complex shapes is the key feature of the device. (Click to view larger version...)
Wendelstein 7-X at the Greifswald branch of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is the world's largest fusion device of the stellarator type. A ring of 50 superconducting coils with complex shapes is the key feature of the device.
Science at the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany, is progressing step by step in its quest to prove that the quality of the plasma confinement in a stellarator can reach the level of competing tokamak-type systems.

In it first two operational campaigns (2015/2016 and 2017/2018) scientists achieved significant milestones on the machine, obtaining a first plasma in helium in December 2015, a first plasma in hydrogen a few months later, and a record "triple product" value for stellarators in 2018. In the multiyear shutdown phase that followed, the goal was to transition to actively water-cooled components in the vacuum vessel to allow for a doubling of input heating and, in turn, improved performance.

Now, with 6.8 kilometres of cooling pipes (feeding 657 independent cooling circuits to in-vessel components), upgraded or new heating systems, and 40 new diagnostics, the fusion facility is ready, within a few years, to attempt plasma operations lasting for up to 30 minutes. The first experimental period of the new campaign is expected to last until March 2023

"With the improved equipment, we want to be able to keep high-performance plasmas with up to 18 gigajoules of energy turnover stable for half an hour in a few years," explains Professor Dr. Thomas Klinger, Head of Stellarator Transport and Stability Division, IPP, Greifswald. "Now it will be a matter of approaching this goal step-by-step and learning more about plasma operation at higher energies without putting too much stress on the machine too quickly." 

See the original press release on the IPP website.

return to the latest published articles