Construction of Wendelstein 7-X—Engineering a Steady-State Stellarator

The next step in the Wendelstein stellarator line is the large superconducting device Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), which is currently under construction in Greifswald. Steady-state operation is an intrinsic feature of stellarators, and one key element of the W7-X mission is to demonstrate steady-state operation at reactor-relevant plasma conditions, as required for an economic fusion reactor. Such steady-state operation requires development of special technologies to be discussed in this paper.