The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), internal designation HT-7U (Hefei Tokamak 7 Upgrade), is an experimental

superconducting Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

tokamak A tokamak (; russian: токамáк; otk, 𐱃𐰸𐰢𐰴, Toḳamaḳ) is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices being ...

magnetic fusion energy reactor in Hefei, China. The

Hefei Institutes of Physical Science The Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASHIPS, ) is a large-scaled integrated research center in Hefei, China. The inception of CASHIPS involved the integration of several existing institutes that were all ...

is conducting the experiment for the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

. It has operated since 2006. It is the first tokamak to employ superconducting toroidal and poloidal magnets. It aims for plasma pulses of up to 1,000 seconds. Since China is a member of the international ITER project, it is hoped that EAST will provide new impetus for its further development.

History

EAST followed China's first superconducting tokamak device, dubbed HT-7, built by the Institute of Plasma Physics in partnership with

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

in the early 1990s. The project was proposed in 1996 and approved in 1998. According to a 2003 schedule, buildings and site facilities were to be constructed by 2003. Tokamak assembly was to take place from 2003 through 2005. Construction was completed in March 2006 and on September 28, 2006, "first plasma" was achieved. According to official reports, the project's budget is CNY ¥300 million (approximately US$37 million), some 1/15 to 1/20 the cost of a comparable reactor built in other countries.

Phase I

On September 28, 2006, first plasma was achieved—the first test lasted nearly three seconds, and generated an electric current of 200 kiloamperes. By Jan 2007 "the reactor created a plasma lasting nearly five seconds and generating an electric current of 500 kilo amperes". On November 7, 2010, EAST achieved its first H-mode plasma by LHW alone. In May 2011, EAST became the first tokamak to successfully sustain H-Mode plasma for over 30 seconds at ~50 million Kelvin.

Phase II

On November 29, 2011, The ribbon-cutting ceremony for EAST auxiliary heating system project was held, signifying EAST's entering of “Phase-II”. On May 19, 2014, after nearly 20-month-long upgrading break since September 2012, EAST was ready for the first round of experiments in 2014. By May 2015, EAST was reporting 1 MA currents, and H-mode for 6.4 seconds. In February, 2016, a plasma pulse was maintained for a record 102 seconds at ~50 million °C. more data in screen shot Plasma current of 400kA and a density of about 2.4 x 10¹⁹/m³ with slowly increasing temperature. On November 2, 2016, EAST became the first tokamak to successfully sustain H-Mode plasma for over a minute at ~50 million °C. On July 3, 2017, EAST became the first tokamak to successfully sustain H-Mode plasma for over 100 seconds at ~50 million °C. On November 12, 2018, EAST reached a milestone of 100 million °C electron temperature. In May, 2021, EAST reached a milestone of 120 million °C electron temperature for 101 seconds. On December 30, 2021, a long-pulse high-parameter plasma operation of 1056 seconds was realized, which once again created a new world record for the operation of the Tokamak experimental device.

Physics objectives

China is a member of the ITER consortium, and EAST is a testbed for ITER technologies. EAST was designed to test: *

Superconducting Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

Niobium-titanium

poloidal field The terms toroidal and poloidal refer to directions relative to a torus of reference. They describe a three-dimensional coordinate system in which the poloidal direction follows a small circular ring around the surface, while the toroidal direct ...

magnets A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel ...

, making it the first tokamak with superconducting toroidal and

poloidal The terms toroidal and poloidal refer to directions relative to a torus of reference. They describe a three-dimensional coordinate system in which the poloidal direction follows a small circular ring around the surface, while the toroidal direc ...

magnets * Non-inductive current drive * Pulses of up to 102 seconds with 0.5 MA plasma current * Schemes for controlling plasma instabilities through real-time diagnostics * Materials for diverters and plasma facing components * Operation with ''β''_N = 2 and confinement factor ''H''₈₉ > 2

Tokamak parameters

References

External links

* - Official website of EAST Fusion Facility - Chinese Academy of Science
People's Daily article

- Note that EAST is not the "world's first experimental nuclear fusion device".

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