for the physicists and
engineers who built the
world’s largest experimental nuclear fusion
reactor.
;e € 1 billion program
spanning 20 years at the
Max Planck Institute for
Plasma Physics in Greifswald,
Germany achieved its ultimate
goal in February. ;at’s when the
massive doughnut-shaped Wendelstein
7-X (W7-X) experimental reactor generated
a brief but scorching ribbon of hydrogen plasma—
the same energy produced by the sun and stars. ;e
reactor reached 80 million degrees Celsius (144 million degrees Fahrenheit) during the quarter-second
discharge, giving researchers justi;cation to continue tests in the years ahead until W7-X discharges
last 30 minutes.
Project coordinators kept the megaproject on
schedule and within budget as they took the ;rst
step in a global race to develop nuclear fusion
power plants that—unlike conventional nuclear
plants—produce little radioactive waste. With more
than 200 projects necessary to plan and assemble
the W7-X, the involved scientists couldn’t a;ord to
take any chances. So they also learned to embrace
the value of project management. ;e project coor-
dination team introduced project leaders and team
members to strict processes for managing resources
and schedules and mitigating risk, says Axel Lorenz,
PhD, head of the W7-X project coordination divi-
sion, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Grei-
fswald, Germany.
“A lot of people here are well-quali;ed technically, but they didn’t have a feeling for how to
estimate a work process and take on contingencies in certain steps for manufacturing, assembly
and commissioning,” Dr. Lorenz says. “A number
of colleagues didn’t have much interest in project
management, so we tried to help them understand
the challenges ahead and open their eyes.”
MATERIAL ISSUES
;e W7-X was built from the inside out: ;rst, the
plasma containment vessel, then the coils threaded
onto the vessel, followed by the outer shell to complete the cryostat, and ;nally the plasma viewing
ports—and those were just the major components.
In all, material estimates and orders had to be collected from about 50 project leaders across eight
Science was the
A breakdown of
different layers
of the reactor
shows the main
components:
magnetic coils,
cryostat, plasma
vessel, divertor and
heating systems.
