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Chinese scientists start more advanced Fusion experiments on EAST.
28 May 2014
(LPAC)—On May 19, Chinese scientists at the Institute of Plasma Physics completed a 20-month upgrade to their superconducting EAST tokamak, and will soon begin their 2014 experiment campaign. The goal of this year’s experiments will be to extend the duration of fusion production to more than 400 seconds, working toward steady-state operation of a fusion machine. This is in concert with similar goals for the international ITER tokamak project. The enhancements include an increase in the capacity of the system to heat the plasma, new techniques for supressing instabilities in the plasma, an improved heat-removing system, and the installation of 76 new diagnostic systems, to collect information on plasma parameters. The scientists aim to operate the Tokamak in "H-mode," in which there is a non-linear strong and sudden transition in the characteristics of the plasma, which improves its confinement. This is also a goal of ITER. The first part of the campaign, to begin at the end of June, will tune each new sub-system and check out its reliability. The second part, to start in October, will include the addition of new plasma heating capabilities. The report from China in the ITER Newsletter of May 19, adds: "As always, EAST is open to the worldwide fusion community. Calls for experiment proposals will be sent out in early September, with a list of detailed machine capabilities and diagnostics. We look forward to working with our international partners to achieve exciting results on EAST." One can expect more American scientists to flock to China in order to advance fusion research, as the U.S. program is under attack by an evil Administration, that doesn’t see the need for "fancy fusion." [Marsha Freeman] |
