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by k4l3 3842 days ago
Good call on the actual price. Still 1/13th the current cost of the not-yet-operational ITER... Makes me wonder if the stellerator concept will be more feasible in the long run.
2 comments

I don't think you can draw any conclusions from comparing the price of Wendelstein 7-X and ITER. ITER is much larger than Wendelstein, it looks like the magnets in ITER are roughly 10 times as heavy, so ITER needs much more material than Wendelstein.
This is an earlier-stage demonstration than ITER. A fairer comparison would be with the cost of JET.