Chinese tokomak achieves plasma confinement time of 30 seconds
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027516
Ars Technica : A team from the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, China, reports this week in Nature Physics that its Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) device has succeeded in magnetically confining plasma for 30 seconds. Although other tokamaks, including Japan’s JT-60 device, have achieved similar confinement times, EAST’s feat constitutes a significant advance because it made use of the so-called H-mode. In that confinement regime, the plasma itself spontaneously generates an electromagnetic skin that helps prevent the plasma from bursting through its confining fields. Previous H-mode confinement times were an order of magnitude shorter.
