Hot plasma core, cold edge – a masterpiece of control technique

ASDEX Upgrade fusion device breaks record for power exhaust / results of power plant relevance

A world record in heating power, in relation to the size of the device, has been achieved by the ASDEX Upgrade fusion device at Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching: This was made possible by a sophisticated control system.

For the first time world-wide, a fast feedback control facility ensures, on the one hand, that the millions of degrees hot high-power plasmas needed are produced and, on the other, that the wall of the plasma vessel is not overloaded, this being an important result on the way to a fusion power plant. Like the sun, a fusion power plant is to ... more >>