With the High-Tech Agenda Germany, the German government has set the course for the promotion of fusion-related research in Germany. The action plan ‘Germany on the way to a fusion power plant’ defines eight measures to build the world's first fusion power plant in Germany. Nuclear fusion, as it takes place in the sun, promises an almost inexhaustible source of energy. At its core, it involves the fusion of lighter atoms such as hydrogen, deuterium and tritium into heavier atoms such as helium. This produces huge amounts of energy, which is to be utilised in a power plant. The world's largest X-ray laser, the European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg, is predestined for investigating fundamental processes of fusion. In particular, researchers at European XFEL want to contribute to investigating the critical early phases of fusion-related reactions. Its experimental facilities are equipped with powerful lasers that generate the very high energy densities required to create plasmas, an extremely hot state of matter. Using the extremely short and intense X-ray laser flashes of the European XFEL, the researchers would be able to analyse the reactions taking place step by step. This would provide extremely detailed images of the inside of fusion experiments, right down to the atomic level. “With our X-ray laser, we can precisely investigate how fusion-related processes take place,” explains Prof Thomas Feurer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Management Board of European XFEL. “This enables researchers to better understand the complex processes and determine the conditions under which a fusion reaction begins and how it can be optimised.” As early as June 2024, a workshop at European XFEL led to a broad scientific consensus that combining the precise X-ray flashes of European XFEL with powerful lasers could provide new insights that would significantly advance fusion-related research.
European XFEL welcomes the #German government's plans to promote #fusion-related #research - the High-Tech Agenda Germany #HTAD.
The world's largest #X-ray #laser, the European XFEL near #Hamburg, is predestined for investigating fundamental processes of fusion.
