China's “artificial sun” sets new world record

On the evening of April 12th at 9 pm, China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST, also known as the "artificial sun"), the world's first fully superconducting Tokamak device in operation, achieved a major breakthrough by successfully realizing 403 seconds of steady-state, long-pulse, high-confinement mode plasma operation, setting a new world record for the high-confinement mode operation of Tokamak devices.

Behind the 403-second milestone is the effort of the EAST team of Hefei Institutes of Physical Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) which has solved a series of problems in integrating cutting-edge physical theories with technology including plasma shape and position control over a long time scale, high-power radio frequency wave heating and current drive, plasma-wall interaction, and real-time diagnosis of key distribution parameters. The major breakthroughs achieved by physics experiments on EAST have fully proved the device's ability to steadily operate at high parameters and long pulses, and further verified the feasibility of the steady-state operation under the high-confinement mode for future fusion experimental reactors. In the meantime, they are of great significance to the future exploration of the frontier physical problems in fusion reactors, the enhancement of the economy and practicability of nuclear fusion energy, and faster implementation of fusion energy applications. (Reported by Xu Huiyuan)