Special Nature Physics issue on nuclear fusion
The May 2016 issue of the journal Nature Physics features an ‘Insight’ on nuclear fusion — a collection of commissioned Commentaries and Reviews highlighting various aspects of fusion science, from the basic physics involved to the practical difficulties ahead.
WEGA – Forty-year-old fusion experiment to cross the Atlantic
The WEGA fusion device at Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics [IPP] in Greifswald, Germany, is being handed over to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States, after 13 years of successful work. WEGA is making room for the Wendelstein 7-X large-scale device, which is currently in development at IPP and will be completed in 2015.
Under the name “Wendelstein Experiment in Grenoble for the Application of Radio Frequency Heating”, this small fusion device was commissioned in 1975 as a joint German-French-Belgian project. Scientists from IPP at Garching and…
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Core of fusion experiment completed
The last major part of the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment was installed on 21 December last year. The addition of the 14 tonne final part of the device – the lid of the thermally insulating outer shell – sees the completion of the ring-like base machine, at the Greifswald branch of the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics, which will begin operation in 2014.
Fusion research aims to draw energy from the fusion of atomic nuclei – the same power source which drives the sun. To achieve this, hydrogen plasma must be superheated to temperatures above 100 million degrees, within the confines of…
