Wendelstein 7-AS
stellarator for plasma fusion experiments (1988-2002)
Wendelstein 7-AS (abbreviated W7-AS, for "Advanced Stellarator") was an experimental stellarator which was in operation from 1988 to 2002 by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching. It was the first of a new class of advanced stellarators with modular coils, designed with the goal of developing a nuclear fusion reactor to generate electricity.
The experiment was succeeded by Wendelstein 7-X, which began construction in Greifswald in 2002, was completed in 2014 and started operation in December 2015. The goal of its successor is to investigate the suitability of components designed for a future fusion reactor.
Experimental design
Wendelstein 7-AS was a stellarator, a device which generates the magnetic fields necessary for the confinement of a hot hydrogen plasma via current-carrying coils outside the plasma. They are potential candidates for fusion reactors designed for continuous operation as the current exclusively flows on the outside of the machine, in contrast to the tokamak which generates the confining magnetic fields from the current that flows within the plasma itself.
Wendelstein 7-AS was the first in a series of IPP stellarator experiments with a modular coil system that creates the twisted magnetic fields necessary to confine the plasma. It was designed to give the magnetic fields more degrees of freedom that allowed it shaped closer to the optimal theoretical configuration. Due to limited computing power and the need to quickly test the validity of the concept on the stellarator, only a partial optimization of the magnetic fields were carried out at Wendelstein 7-AS. It was only on the successor device Wendelstein 7-X that a full optimization of the code used to generate the fields were carried out.
Technical specifications
Project results
The following experimental results confirmed the predictions of a partially optimized Wendelstein 7-AS and led to the development and construction of the Wendelstein 7-X:
The magnetic field was able to trap plasma particles (mostly hydrogen ions and electrons) with higher thermal energies than its predecessors.
The public source identifies “Wendelstein 7-AS” as stellarator for plasma fusion experiments (1988-2002). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wendelstein, 7-AS and stellarator.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wendelstein 7-AS” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.