New issue of the Wendelstein Newsletter

Information about the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device

April 07, 2016

The Wendelstein 7-X Newsletter reports on current developments throughout the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment. The latest edition (12/2016) presents a survey of the first experimentation campaign on the device.


After the start of operation on 10 December 2015 with a helium plasma the first hydrogen plasma was switched on by Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel at an official ceremony on 3 February 2016. After ten weeks of intensive plasma operation the first experimentation campaign was duly concluded on 10 March 2016.

The success achieved exceeded even the most optimistic expectations: The cleaner the plasma vessel became, the longer the plasma pulses lasted, culminating in a duration of 6 seconds. More than 20 different measuring facilities were put into operation. The six transmitters of the microwave heating functioned reliably and yielded up to five megawatts of heating power. This afforded electron temperatures of up to 90 million degrees Celsius and ion temperatures of about 20 million degrees. Meanwhile modifications are already being made for the next experimentation campaign scheduled for 2017.

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