What’s New

Operators at EAST, the Chinese superconducting tokamak, announced in the February issue of the EAST Newsletter that the auxiliary heating system has passed a national acceptance review and is officially stamped "well qualified" to enter operation.

Construction on the auxiliary heating system, which consists of 4 MW neutral beam injectors and 6 MW lower hybrid current drives, began in November 2011. The additional heating power on EAST will enable high-level plasma physics research including testing for ITER.

The acceptance panel commended the construction, complete "with high quality, within budget and one year ahead of schedule."

Aiming at long-pulse plasma discharges, a series of experimental techniques has been developed on EAST in recent years. Tremendous efforts have been made during past two years to enhance EAST's capabilities—nearly every sub-system except superconducting magnets has been upgraded or modified to enable higher performance and truly steady state operation.

Read the full article in the February issue of the EAST Newsletter, attached.