History of IPP
The 50-year history of IPP can look back on major milestones on the way to a fusion power plant
IPP was founded in 1960. It is an institute of the Max Planck Society and also associated to the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. Since 1961 IPP has been an associate of the European Fusion Programme, which comprises the fusion laboratories of the European Union and Switzerland. The Plasma Diagnostics Division in Berlin formed in 1992 (till 2003), the Greifswald Branch Institute was founded in 1994.
IPP is involved in JET, the joint European experiment in Culham/Great Britain. From 1983 to 2014, IPP was hosting the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) Close Support Unit, the successor of the NET group, which was followed in 2014 by EUROfusion, the "European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy". Also IPP was providing – from 1988 to the end of 2006 – the technical site for the planning group responsible for designing the international ITER experimental reactor. IPP coordinates its research effort with fusion research centers all over the world.
The institute is funded by the European Union, the German Federal Government, and the State Governments of Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
