At 0:26 a.m. on January 28, East, the all superconducting tokamak fusion experimental device of Hefei Institute of material science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully realized the ultra-high temperature long pulse plasma discharge with the electron temperature exceeding 50 million degrees and the duration of 102 seconds, which is the longest plasma discharge with the electron temperature reaching 50 million degrees on the international Tokamak experimental device.

 

Ultra high temperature long pulse plasma discharge is the basic operation mode of fusion reactor in the future. At present, most of the experimental devices of ICF in the world are conventional non superconducting tokamak, and the duration of the plasma with divertor configuration is basically less than 20 seconds. Only European Union and Japanese scientists have ever obtained the plasma with high parameter divertor with maximum 60 seconds. East's established scientific goal is to achieve 100 million degrees 1000 seconds of plasma operation, but to achieve this scientific goal is still facing many scientific and technological challenges. Since this round of experiments, researchers of East team have solved a series of key scientific and engineering technical problems day and night: precise control of the magnetic configuration of long pulse plasma, safe operation technology of all superconducting magnets, steady-state and effective plasma heating and current driving, etc. Through integrated innovation and comprehensive experimental research, using low clutter and electron cyclotron wave co heating and current driving, East successfully achieved high-temperature plasma discharge with 102 seconds, plasma current of 0.4ma and core electron temperature of more than 50 million degrees under the joint heating of neutral beam.

 

Experts pointed out that the above achievements have milestone significance in the future fusion reactor research, marking that China continues to lead the world in the research of steady-state magnetically confined fusion. At present, East has become an important experimental platform for the research of steady-state magnetically confined fusion in the world. Its research results will provide scientific and engineering experimental support for the realization of steady-state high confined discharge in ITER of international thermonuclear fusion experimental reactor in the future, and will continue to lay an important scientific foundation for the preliminary Research of China's next-generation fusion device, fusion engineering experimental reactor.