The Auxiliary Heating Technology Division (AHTD), headed by Professor Yanping Zhao, was founded in 1980. The central focus of AHTD activities has been to create a scientific and engineering base for the development of fusion power and to use that knowledge to develop useful applications. This Division develops Low Hybrid (LH), Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequencies (ICRF) and Electron Cyclotron (EC) wave heating/current drive systems with a total of 26 million watts of power. A 2.45GHz 4.0MW of LH system at N port is the major tool to sustain the plasma current in the EAST plasma. A 6.0MW 4.6GHz LHCD system at E port is under construction and will be available in 2014. The ICRF heating system is the only heating method for EAST at this moment, with two dedicated horizontal ports, named I and B. There are four ICRF transmitters in EAST. Three1.5MW ICRF transmitters with a frequency range 25–70MHz and a 1.5MW ICRF transmitters with a frequency range 30–110MHz were put into operation in the 2012 experimental campaigns. Another four 1.5MW with a frequency range 25-70MHz are under construction and will be available in 2014. The EC wave system with 4.0MW at 140GHz is under construction and will be available in 2014. The research is mainly focused on Physics and application of radio frequency waves in high temperature nuclear fusion plasmas. The objective is to discover how to optimize auxiliary heating in tokamaks, and to use the flexibility of this technique to study confinement and control.

 Auxiliary Heating Technology Division has won the Technology Progress Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences for their brilliant contributions to the HT- 6B, the HT -6M, HT -7 and EAST Tokamak.