Top marks for IPP facilities

The European research consortium EUROfusion has had more than 100 fusion facilities in its member states independently assessed. The facilities of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) were consistently categorised in the best category ‘Indispensable’.

How important are the European nuclear fusion research facilities on the way to a fusion power plant? An independent panel of experts investigated this question on behalf of the European consortium EUROfusion. Between autumn 2023 and spring 2024, the panel evaluated more than 100 facilities. It consisted of five EU experts who are not involved in fusion research and six fusion experts who work for organisations outside the EU. In their final report ‘EUROfusion Facilities Review 2023’, the experts recognised the leading role of European fusion research in several areas. The experts categorised the existing research facilities according to their importance as ‘Indispensable’, ‘Very Important’ and ‘Important’. The panel categorised the four examined IPP facilities in the best category.

‘Indispensable’ are therefore

• ASDEX Upgrade – the experts describe the IPP facility as the current ‘flagship facility’ of the EUROfusion Tokamak programme.
• Wendelstein 7-X – the largest and most powerful stellarator in the world.
• GLADIS – according to the panel an indispensable high heat flux test facility for ITER and DEMO divertor and first wall components.
• BATMAN Upgrade and ELISE – “unique test facilities for Negative-Ion Neutral Beam Injection (NNBI) sources, embedded in the size scaling route for ITER NNBI.”.