New experimental results from the largest and most sophisticated stellerator

An international team of scientists is running tests on the largest and most sophisticated stellerator, the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment. This complex machine is housed at the Max-Planck-Institute of Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. Besides preparing for new experiments, researchers are analyzing data from the first experiment campaign that took place in 2016, hoping to understand the science of fusion reactors. In a new report in Physics of Plasmas, Shaocheng Liu and his collaborators recount the first detailed characterization of plasma turbulence at the outer edge of the stellerator.