After years of construction and €1billion in costs, the Wendelstein 7-X machine in Germany successfully generated plasma, a major first step in creating nuclear fusion reactors, which do not use or create radioactive materials. Up until now, commercial nuclear fusion was not feasible because it required tremendous amounts of electricity to control the plasma. Wendelstein 7-X solved that by using powerful magnets instead of electricity. The next step will be constructing a €15billion nuclear fusion reactor that is powered by hydrogen. That’s right, all it needs for fuel is hydrogen.
If nuclear fusion reactors become commercially feasible, then our power problems are solved. This is that important.
“On 10th December 2015 the first helium plasma was produced in the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald. After more than a year of technical preparations and tests, experimental operation has now commenced according to plan.”