Wendelstein 7-X

Wendelstein 7-X is an experimental stellarator fusion reactor built in Greifswald, Germany, by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and completed in October 2015 as the successor to the earlier Wendelstein 7-AS device. Although the reactor is not designed to generate electricity, it is used to test the main components of a future fusion power plant, and as of 2023 it is the world's largest stellarator device. After two successful operating phases running through October 2018, it was taken offline for upgrades completed in 2022, and new experiments beginning in February 2023 demonstrated longer plasma confinement and increased power, with the eventual goal of sustaining continuous plasma discharges for up to thirty minutes to demonstrate the continuous operation a future fusion plant would need. The project is named for the Wendelstein mountain in Bavaria and is run as an independent partner project of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics with the University of Greifswald.