Overview on the progress of tokamak experimental research in China

Tokamak experimental research in China has made important progress. The main efforts were related to quasi-steady-state operation, LHCD, plasma heating with ICRF, IBW, NBI and ECRH, fuelling with pellets and supersonic molecular beams, and first wall conditioning techniques. Plasma parameters in the experiments were much improved, for example ne = 8× 1019 m-3 and a plasma pulse length of > 10 s were achieved. ICRF boronization and conditioning resulted in Zeff close to unity. Steady state full LH wave current drive has been achieved for more than 3 s. LHCD ramp-up and recharge have also been demonstrated. The best hCDexp » 0.5(1+0.085exp(4.8(BT-1.45)))neICDRp/PLH = 1019 m-2 A W-1. Quasi-steadystate H-mode-like plasmas with a density close to the Greenwald limit were obtained by LHCD, where the energy confinement time was nearly five times longer than in the ohmic case. The synergy between IBW, pellet and LHCD was tested. Research on the mechanism of macroturbulence has been extensively carried out experimentally. AC tokamak operation has been successfully demonstrated.