One of the key milestones in the pursuit of fusion energy is achieving a high "triple product," an important metric that measures the temperature, density, and confinement performance of burning plasma. Recently, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Greifswald, Germany, achieved a significant breakthrough by sustaining a record-high triple product plasma for 43 seconds, far surpassing previous performance. This advance was in part enabled by a new fuel pellet injection system developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

ORNL engineer Steve Meitner stated: "While the W7-X device could previously achieve high performance for short durations, it was unable to maintain performance at high plasma densities—this is where we came in."

The record-breaking W7-X campaign was led by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, with collaboration from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and the National Institute for Fusion Science in Japan.