Europe is ahead in nuclear fusion. Construction of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor or the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in Caderche, a town in the south of France, is progressing little by little, but we have several very important experimental reactors. is in operation.
D Tokamak West (W environment steady-state tokamak is Tokamak Tungsten for steady state operation), France, and ASDEX Upgrade (Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment Upgrade or Axisymmetric Diverter Test Update), in Germany, two of them. However, the Wendelstein 7-X reactor is the jewel in the European crown.
As opposed to WEST and ASDEX UpgradeThis machine is not one Tokamak; it’s a stellar. It is installed in a building at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald (Germany) and currently Largest furnace kind of stellar Planetary and most advanced.
Its purpose is to contribute to the development of technologies involved in the development of nuclear fusion reactors through magnetic confinement, and it has begun an extraordinarily promising campaign of experiments with one plan: to investigate physical phenomena that are still poorly known and to perfect the models that describe the behavior of plasmas.
Hot, dense and well bound plasma
The first tests carried out in this fusion reactor between 2015 and 2018 went according to plan, so in November of last year an important moment came to its itinerary: it was necessary to modify it to install a water cooling system that would be able to more effectively remove residual thermal energy from the walls of the plume, which would allow to reach a higher vacuum. The work required for these changes in temperature was successfully completed in August 2022.
In February 2023, the Wendelstein 7-X reactor was able to confine and stabilize the plasma for 8 uninterrupted minutes.
When scientists introduce such important changes to such complex experiments, they are forced to obsessively review everything before restarting the machine to make sure everything goes right. Fortunately, everything went well and in February 2023 the Wendelstein 7-X reactor reached an important milestone: it was able to confine and stabilize the plasma. Non-stop for 8 minutes Of which the reactor provided a total of 1.3 gigajoules of energy.
A year later, after a new phase of maintenance and renovation, the machine began a campaign of experiments that attempted to gradually raise the plasma temperature. The purpose of these experiments was to thoroughly test the thermal loading limits on the carbon walls, and to better understand the turbulence-controlled transport processes occurring in the plasma, as well as the heat dissipation processes.
Between June 2025 and August 2026, the Wendelstein 7-X reactor underwent several improvements to take its results a step further with a new experimental campaign, which Will continue until mid-December. One of its objectives is to achieve a plasma discharge duration of more than 500 seconds and a stored energy transit of 6 gigajoules.
This work pursues an objective that goes beyond setting new experimental records.
It will also research how to keep the plasma at high temperatures and densities, how to improve its confinement, and what happens to the most powerful ions and transports energy and particles to the walls of the machine. Another challenge is to better distribute the heat reaching these surfaces without damaging the plasma core conditions.
This work pursues an objective that goes beyond setting new experimental records. Wendelstein 7-X should help determine the amount stellar can become A viable option For future nuclear fusion plants. Its main attraction is that its magnetic configuration allows the plasma to be confined without relying on intense electric currents inside, a feature that can facilitate continuous operation of a reactor.
Picture | Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
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