Nuclear fusion experimental reactor 'Wendelstein 7-X' improved and reached 17 times the target value of the past

The nuclear fusion experimental reactor `` Wendelstein 7-X '', which was installed to develop technology to generate energy using plasma, reached a new milestone and succeeded in maintaining high-temperature plasma for 8 minutes.

Power plasma with gigajoule energy turnover generated for eight minutes
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-power-plasma-gigajoule-energy-turnover.html

Wendelstein 7-X is a nuclear fusion reactor that enables experiments on a method called 'magnetic field confinement method' that confines ultra-high temperature plasma. Since its completion in October 2015, many experiments have been conducted. I'm here.

This nuclear fusion reactor will complete three years of improvement work in the summer of 2022, and as a result of reviewing the wall cooling device and heating device, it will be able to supply twice as much power as before to generate plasma. became.

When an experiment was conducted to generate and maintain a new plasma with the improved Wendelstein 7-X, it was said that it succeeded in discharging for 8 minutes with an average heating power of 2.7 megawatts and an energy turnover rate of 1.3 gigajoules. About. The state of the experiment taken with an infrared camera is published on YouTube.

Wendelstein 7-X: 8 min Plasma with 1.3 GJ Energy Turnover (IR video)-YouTube


Energy turnover is defined as the amount of heat multiplied by the duration of the discharge. If a large amount of energy can be continuously coupled to the plasma and the resulting heat can be removed, it will be possible to operate a power plant using fusion plasma for the first time. The value of 1.3 gigajoules recorded this time is the highest ever for the energy turnover rate recorded by Wendelstein 7-X, and one of the highest values recorded by other nuclear fusion experimental reactors in the world. . The pre-modification Wendelstein 7-X had a much lower heating power, an energy turnover rate of up to 75 megajoules, and a discharge time of up to 100 seconds.

Professor Thomas Klinger of the Max Planck Institute, which has jurisdiction over Wendelstein 7-X, said, ``We are currently exploring the path to higher energy values. We have to go step by step,” he said. Researchers plan to increase Wendelstein 7-X's energy turnover rate to 18 gigajoules within a few years and stabilize the plasma for 30 minutes.