(Image credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images)
The recent experimental campaign at the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany, has set new records in the field of nuclear fusion and set new standards in reactor performance.
Nuclear fusion offers the tantalizing prospect of unlimited clean energy. By combining isotopes (or different forms) of hydrogen at extremely high temperatures, the resulting superheated plasma of electrons and ions fuses into heavier atoms, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process.
However, while this synthetic reaction is self-sustaining in the high temperatures and pressures found inside stars, recreating these conditions on Earth is a difficult technical challenge, and existing reactor concepts still consume more energy than they can produce.
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