EAST Experiment Highlighted by NF in 2013

The article “Progress of Long Pulse and H-mode Experiments in EAST”(2013 Nuclear Fusion 53,104006）, authored by Baonian WAN et al, is collected in Highlights of 2013 of Nuclear Fusion (NF), a third time for ASIPP to land its articles on the NF highlight list in consecutive three years.

The article presents significant progress on both the technological and physical fronts towards high-performance, long-pulse plasma discharges in 2012 EAST experiment. With lithium wall conditioning, EAST has achieved fully steady-state long-pulse diverted plasmas entirely driven by the lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) over 400 s and stationary H-mode discharges over 30 s with LHCD and ion cyclotron resonant heating (ICRF). H-modes with various types of edge localized modes (ELMs) have been achieved with HIPB98(y,2) ranging from 0.7 to over unity, providing great opportunities for the study of H-mode physics. New and exciting physics with dominant radio-frequency heating has emerged, including new findings of LHCD-induced 3D edge magnetic topology and its effect on ELM dynamics and particle and heat deposition; the role of zonal flows during the L–H transition and I-phase; and a new turbulence-flow cycle state at the H-mode pedestal. Various means for mitigating ELMs have also been demonstrated to facilitate long-pulse operation, including supersonic molecular beam injection, as well as innovative solid Li granule injection.  

The article, a joint work of ASIPP scientists and their collaborators from 22 universities, labs from home and abroad, was published in September 2013.  (Shaohua reports)

  Highlights of 2013: http://iopscience.iop.org/0029-5515/page/Highlights-of-2013 

  Article：http://iopscience.iop.org/0029-5515/53/10/104006/article