As of: February 19, 2024, 8:00 a.m
By: Bert Brosch
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In front of the Asdex Upgrade research reactor in Garching (from left): Director Sybille Günter, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck and Bavarian State Minister Florian Hermann.
© Bert Brosch
The progress in fusion technology impressed Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck during his visit to Garching.
Even if the path to a ready-to-use reactor is still long and expensive.
Garching - Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Bavarian State Minister Florian Herrmann (CSU) were visibly impressed during a visit to the ASDEX Upgrade nuclear fusion research reactor in Garching: by the technical possibilities and the temperatures, but also by the expected project costs.
Sibylle Günter, scientific director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), led the two politicians through the “Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment”.
ASDEX Upgrade has been in operation since 1991, but has been down for maintenance and parts replacement for over a year and is not due to start again until autumn this year.
Fusion technology quite expensive
“Of course I didn’t make any friends in our preliminary conversation,” reported Günter, “when I said that despite the enormous progress in fusion technology in the recent past, we still have to wait at least 20 years until we have a functioning reactor, and this one will also have to wait at least 20 “It will cost billions of euros.”
Habeck sees great prospects for generating energy through nuclear fusion.
“In addition to wind and solar, we need other options for generating energy to convert the energy system and expand renewable energies,” he said.
But such a huge sum has not been included in the budget this year or in the coming years.
“I also think that a state cannot finance and implement a project like this alone; many people, including the private sector, have to work together,” said Habeck.
Inexhaustible source of energy
In any case, the goal is for the research in Garching and in the IPP in Greifswald, the “Wendelstein 7-X”, to become a profitable application in the long term.
“We want to recreate the sun with an inexhaustible source of energy.”
Florian Herrmann, head of the Bavarian State Chancellery, said he was “in the hottest place in Bavaria, if not in Germany” and firmly believed that fusion technology was one of the key technologies of the 21st century.
“We will not solve all energy challenges with nuclear fusion, but it can make an important contribution.
This will be a major joint task, jointly financed by Bavaria and the Federal Republic.”
Real reactor many times larger
Habeck had many details of the ASDEX upgrade explained to him and, after hearing that the research reactor in Garching would never generate electricity because it was too small, asked how big the “real” reactor should be.
Günter explained that the Garching reactor has a diameter of ten meters, is nine meters high and weighs 800 tons, and the plasma radius is 1.65 meters.
“A fusion reactor that can supply electricity must be at least a factor of four larger, i.e. 40 meters in diameter.
In principle, everything already works here, now it's a matter of refining it, improving it and increasing efficiency." The race for a functioning fusion power plant has begun worldwide, "the question is no longer if, but when and where it will be built will,” says Günter.
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In Garching, however, there were only three tractors and ten farmers with whistles who protested against the traffic light coalition's policy.
By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Munich district newsletter.