Germany's Nuclear Fusion Experiment Begins With Success

The hydrogen plasma created inside the Wendelstein stellarator, which lasted only a quarter of a second. (Credit: IPP) Scientists in Germany successfully completed another phase of an experiment designed to one day produce nuclear fusion Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Particle Physics heated up a small sample of hydrogen to over 170 million degrees Fahrenheit using the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, a donut-shaped device that uses magnetic fields to suspend hydrogen gas while zapping it with powerful microwaves. They succeeded in creating a super-hot plasma, which lasted for about a quarter of a second, according to a news release from the institute. Although fleeting, this experiment successfully demonstrated that plasma can be contained while heated to such extremes, a key step in harnessing nuclear fusion. The Wendelstein stellarator is not meant to produce energy, but rather to test the processes needed to achieve fusion. Wednesday's test was the first of many such hopeful experiments. The stellarator experiment has been in the works for almost two decades now, and has cost nearly $500 million dollars. Germany is the primary backer of the experiment, with additional funding from the U.S., Poland and the European Union.