Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics

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Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
Category: research Institute
Carrier: Max Planck Society
Legal form of the carrier: Registered association
Seat of the wearer: Munich
Facility location: Garching near Munich
Branch office: Greifswald
Type of research: Basic research
Subjects: physics
Basic funding: Federal government (90%), states (10%)
Management: Sibylle Günter (Scientific Director)
Employee: approx. 1,100
Homepage: www.ipp.mpg.de

Coordinates: 48 ° 15 ′ 49 ″  N , 11 ° 40 ′ 18 ″  E

Interview by Holger Klein with press spokeswoman Isabella Milch about research at the IPP.

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics ( IPP after the founding name Institute for Plasma Physics ) in Garching near Munich and its sub-institute in Greifswald are dedicated to researching the physical basis for a fusion power plant . The IPP is an institute of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science and an associated member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers . The IPP was founded in Garching in 1960, initially in the legal form of a limited liability company (GmbH), with the Max Planck Society and the physicist Werner Heisenberg as shareholders. In 1971 the institute was incorporated into the Max Planck Society. The Greifswald branch was founded in 1994. Since 1961 the IPP has been part of the "European Fusion Research Program", which is coordinated by the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). In 1999 the European Fusion Development Agreement was signed that regulates the cooperation between EURATOM and the European Commission (until 2013). Since 2014, the IPP has been a member and coordinator of the EUROfusion consortium , to which 29 fusion research centers in 26 countries of the European Union and Switzerland belong. The institute is financed by the European Union , the Federal Republic of Germany and the states of Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

With around 1100 employees, including around 700 in Garching and 400 in Greifswald, the IPP is one of the largest centers for fusion research in Europe. The institute's nine scientific departments currently investigate the inclusion of high-temperature hydrogen plasmas in magnetic fields, develop systems for plasma heating and measurement methods for analyzing plasma properties, deal with plasma theory, magnetic field technology, materials research, plasma-wall interaction and data acquisition and processing with system studies on fusion. The institute also has two junior research groups. Together with the Technical University of Munich and the University of Greifswald , the institute is responsible for the "International Helmholtz Graduate School for Plasma Physics", a training program for doctoral students in the field of plasma physics . Scientific members and directors were Alexander Bradshaw and Friedrich Wagner .

The most important fusion experiments in the history of IPP include the stellarator systems Wendelstein 2a (1968 to 1974), Wendelstein 7-A (1976 to 1985), and Wendelstein 7-AS (1988 to 2002) as well as the tokamak systems Pulsator (1973 to 1979) and ASDEX (1980 to 1990). Today the tokamak ASDEX Upgrade (since 1991) is operated in Garching ; In 2015, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator , the world's largest fusion device of the stellarator type, went into operation at the Greifswald branch . The IPP also plays a key role in the scientific operation of the European joint experiment Joint European Torus (JET) (since 1983) in Culham , UK , which is currently the largest fusion device in the world. The IPP contributed essential fundamentals to the planning for the international test reactor ITER (Latin for “the way”), the construction of which began in 2009. The institute will also provide scientific support for the operation of the facility. The WEGA plasma experiment in Greifswald also ran from 2001 to 2013, primarily for training purposes .

Directors and Research Areas

Directors and their main areas of work at the MPI for Plasma Physics (at both locations) are (as of September 2016):

Former directors (selection)

Publications

Since 1999 the institute has published the newsletter Energieperspektiven .

literature

  • Susan Boenke: Origin and development of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics 1955–1971. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1991, ISBN 3-593-34414-9 .
  • Isabella Milch (Red.): 50 years of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics: Research for the energy of the future , Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching, 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-031750-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Resonator podcast of the Helmholtz Association : The IPP in Garching (episode 20, November 29, 2013)
  2. ↑ see the publications from this time under GND 2014313-8