Thomas Pederson
W7-X Team, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Greifswald, Germany
Title: Recent results from the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X
Abstract: Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) is a highly optimized stellarator experiment that went into operation in 2015. With a 30 cubic meter volume, a superconducting coil system operating at 2.5 T, and steady-state heating capability of eventually up to 10 MW, it was built to demonstrate the benefits of optimized stellarators at parameters approaching those of a fusion power plant. This talk will give a general overview of the W7-X goals and capabilities, and describe results from the first divertor operation, including stable detachment for 26 seconds, pulse lengths up to 100 seconds, evidence that the neoclassical optimization was successful, and brief periods of turbulence-suppression, allowing a stellarator world-record for fusion performance (triple product). Finally, the future plans will be given.
Biography: Born in Roskilde, Denmark in 1970, Thomas Sunn Pedersen studied applied physics engineering at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Lyngby. He graduated with a M. Sc. degree in 1995 having completed his Master's thesis at Risø National Laboratory in computational plasma physics and spent a semester at JET in England. He then went to MIT (Cambridge, MA, USA) and graduated with a PhD in plasma physics in 2000. His thesis work focused on soft x-ray measurements and modelling of impurities in the Alcator C-Mod tokamak.
After a brief postdoctoral position on the Levitated Dipole Experiment, he started as an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University in New York, also in 2000. At Columbia University, he designed and built a remarkably simple stellarator, the Columbia Non-neutral Torus, which he then used to study pure electron plasmas and partially neutralized plasmas. He also taught a number of courses, including plasma physics and quantum mechanics. In 2005, he was promoted to associate professor, and in 2007 he received tenure.
In 2010, he was appointed a scientific member of the Max-Planck-Society, and in 2011, he started as Director of the Stellarator Edge and Divertor Physics Division at the Greifswald branch of the Max-Planck Institute of Plasma Physics.