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Herz — World Desk · · 30s summary · 3 min read
Germany plans to invest up to €9 billion in fusion research over the coming years, aiming to give the country a chance of hosting the world’s first fusion reactor. According to Handelsblatt, Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär is due to announce the locations of several regional research hubs on Wednesday. More than 30 universities, non-university research institutes and companies are involved. Their work will cover magnetic and laser fusion, fuel targets, reactor materials and the fuel cycle. Companies are expected to provide substantial resources, with private funding eventually accounting for most hub financing.
Germany’s federal government wants to strengthen domestic fusion research, giving the country a chance of hosting the world’s first fusion reactor.
According to Handelsblatt, Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär is due to announce the locations of several regional fusion research hubs on Wednesday, together with representatives of Germany’s federal states.
More than 30 universities, non-university research institutes and companies are participating in the regional hubs. Their work focuses on producing energy by fusing light atomic nuclei.
Bär plans to invest up to €9 billion in fusion over the coming years. The funding would come from Germany’s new €18 billion high-tech strategy.
Each hub is initially expected to receive several million euros. The money will help prepare future funding programmes for the construction of a first fusion reactor.
The federal government also expects companies to commit substantial resources of their own. After the initial phase, private money is expected to provide most of the hubs’ funding.
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A first hub will advance magnetic fusion, in which light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus. It will draw on research reactors in Garching and Greifswald operated by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, where specialists are also trained. Possible operation with tritium is to be tested.
Tritium is a hydrogen isotope whose nucleus contains one proton and two neutrons.
In Bavaria, Proxima Fusion and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics are expected to lead a magnetic-fusion hub involving Gauss Fusion, according to Handelsblatt.
A second group of hubs will focus on laser fusion. Focused Energy will lead the industrial research in Biblis.
Marvel Fusion and European XFEL will study laser targets at a hub in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. A target is the fuel pellet ignited during the fusion process and represents one of its main technical challenges.
European XFEL is a 3.4-kilometre X-ray free-electron laser facility capable of observing objects at atomic scale. It will be used to examine the behaviour and instabilities of targets exposed to lasers.
The University of Rostock is also conducting laser-fusion research with the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf.
A third hub, based at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, will research the materials and fuels needed for future reactors. These materials will have to withstand temperatures above 100 million degrees.
Germany’s federal ministry says work on the fusion fuel cycle remains at an early stage. The research is intended to clarify the quantity and half-life of the radioactive waste produced.
Despite decades of scientific and industrial research, fusion has not yet been reproduced in a way that enables net electricity production on Earth.
The available information does not specify when a first reactor could be built or whether it would ultimately be located in Germany.
The United States and China currently lead the field, while investment in fusion companies is rising rapidly.
Dorothee Bär plans to invest up to €9 billion over the coming years from an €18 billion high-tech strategy.
More than 30 universities, non-university research institutes and companies are involved in the regional hubs.
The research will cover magnetic and laser fusion, fuel targets, reactor materials and the fuel cycle.
No. Fusion has not yet been reproduced in a way that enables net electricity production on Earth.