Fusion research at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) works on the basic principles of a future fusion power plant. Some 1000 persons at the locations of Garching, Greifswald, and Berlin are engaged in research work within the framework of the European Nuclear Fusion Program coordinated by EURATOM. IPP is financed by the European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the federal states of Bavaria, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Berlin. IPP is the only institute in the world operating the two most favored plant lines, tokamak and stellarator, in parallel. Tokamak facilities generate the ring-shaped magnetic field cage by external magnet coils and by a pulsed electric current induced in the plasma. The ASDEX Upgrade plant has been operated at IPP since 1991, with several extensions and modifications, and serves to study one of the main problems of fusion research: the interactions between the hot plasma and the walls surrounding it. Important findings for future work have been made. They will also be used for the planned international ITER fusion plant, in the planning of which IPP is involved. Fusion plants operating by the stellarator principle work without a plasma current, having a field generated only by external coils, and thus are able to be run in the continuous mode. WENDELSTEIN 7-AS has been in operating at Garching IPP since 1988 and constitutes the first new-generation plant in the world. Its underlying conceptual design principles have been confirmed in plant operation so far. WENDELSTEIN 7-X will be the world's largest fusion experiment of the stellarator type. The plant is to be commissioned in 2006. After 2020, following the successful operation of ITER or WENDELSTEIN 7-X, more extensive planning could be started of fusion plants for future energy supply. (orig.)