Recent EAST Experimental Results and Systems Upgrade in Support of Long-Pulse Steady-State Plasma Operation

• Published in: IEEE transactions on plasma science 2022-11, Vol.50 (11), p.1-5
• Main Authors: Song, Yuntao, Wan, Baonian, Gong, Xianzu, Li, Jiangang, Wu, Xinchao, Liu, Fukun, Chen, Junling, Hu, Jiansheng, Xu, Guosheng, Lu, Kun, Liang, Yunfeng, Xiang, Nong, Sun, Youwen, Wang, Liang, Liu, Haiqing, Zhang, Bin, Xia, Tianyang, Huang, Juan, Ding, Rui, Zuo, Guizong, Zeng, Long, Zhang, Xinjun, Zang, Qing, Lyu, Bo, Li, Guoqiang, Xi, Weibin, Zhang, Jian, Huang, Liansheng, Yao, Damao, Zheng, Jinxing, Wei, Jing, Hu, Yanlan, Yuan, Qiping, Qian, Jinping, Zhou, Zhiwei, Wang, Mao, Xu, Chandong, Xie, Yahong, Wang, Zhengchu, Zhu, Haisheng, Song, Wei, Wu, Hao, Liu, Xiaoyan, Guo, Fei, Pan, Shengmin, He, Shiying, Zhang, Xiuqing, Chen, Xiaojiao, Xu, Liuwei, Ding, Fang, Hu, Qingsheng, Zhong, Guoqiang, Lin, Shiyao, Jie, Yinxian, Chen, Ran, Zhang, Yang, Chen, Yiping, Zhao, Hailin, Wu, Zhenwei, Li, Yadong, Yan, Rong, Fu, Jia, Zhang, Tao, Zhang, Shoubiao, Zhuang, Huidong, Chen, Yue, Yu, Yaowei, Xiao, Bingjia, Ji, Zhenshan, Shen, Biao, Li, Shi, Wang, Feng, Yuan, Shuai, Cheng, Yan, Ma, Wendong, Zhao, Lianmin, Liu, Liang, Ding, Bojiang, Hu, Huaichuan, Xu, Weiye, Wu, Dajun, Yang, Yong, Wang, Mingfu, Li, Jiaxing, Liu, Xuetian, Zhu, Lili, Huang, Yiyun, Wu, Yu, Gao, Xiang, Wang, Xiaojie, Chen, Xiangsong, Luo, Guangnan, Xie, Yuanlai, Yang, Lei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Active control; Antennas; Beam injection; Couplings; Cyclotron frequency; Cyclotron resonance; Cyclotrons; EAST; Electron cyclotron resonance; experimental data; Heating; Heating systems; Helium plasma; Injection; Ion cyclotron radiation; long-pulse steady-state plasma operation (SSO); Neutral beams; Nuclear power plants; Particle beam injection; Plasma; Plasmas; Pumping; Resonance; Steady state; systems upgrade; Tungsten; Wavelengths
• ISSN: 0093-3813; 1939-9375
• DOI: 10.1109/TPS.2022.3210124

In recent years, EAST has achieved a 60-s scale steady-state plasma operation (SSO), which is electron dominant heated by the electron cyclotron wave and low hybrid wave. Substantial progresses have been made in the development of long-pulse operation, such as active control of radiative divertor, edge localized mode (ELM) suppression, and He plasma experiment. To further develop the steady-state operation scenario and study the related critical physical issues, the upgrade of EAST has been completed in 2020. The auxiliary heating systems were rearranged and upgraded with a total heating power capability of 33 MW. The 2.45-GHz lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) launcher has been updated from full active multijunction (FAM) to passive active multijunction (PAM) to avoid damage caused by plasma-material interaction. The injection power capability of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system is upgraded to 1.4 MW. The upgraded ion cyclotron resonance frequency (ICRF) antenna injects low parallel wavenumber ( k_{\vert \vert}) spectra with good single pass absorption. The neutral beam injection (NBI) system is moved from F-port to D-port and is reoriented from counterclockwise to clockwise injection. The armor material of lower divertor has been upgraded from graphite to tungsten improving the steady-state heat handling capability from 2 to 10 MW/m ^{2} . Based on the upgraded pumping system and improved conductance, the effective pumping speed for D_{2} of the EAST lower divertor increased twice. With all these upgrades, 100-s scale steady-state operation ( T_{e0} > 10 keV) and 1056-s high-performance operation with 1.73-GJ injection energy were achieved in 2021 campaigns. The experience in high-performance long-pulse operation obtained on EAST will lay a foundation for the ITER and Chinese Fusion Engineering Testing Reactor (CFETR) operation.