Scientists in Germany switch on nuclear fusion experiment
Germany is getting closer to nuclear fusion — the long-held dream of unlimited clean energy which has the potential for unlimited amounts of clean power. There are a number of challenges to harnessing this power — researchers need to build a device that can heat atoms to temperatures of more than 100 million °C (180 million °F).
German scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald, joined by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, injected hydrogen into the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device and heated the gas into plasma for a moment, according to the press release.
“With a temperature of 80 million degrees and a lifetime of a quarter of a second, the device’s first hydrogen plasma has completely lived up to our expectations,” Hans-Stephan Bosch, whose division works on the Wendelstein 7-X, said the press release.
