2026-01-02 Xinhua Editor：Mo Honge
Researchers have recognized a technique to surpass the plasma density limit in experiments with the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), often known as the “artificial sun,” offering a vital bodily foundation for high-density operation in magnetic confinement fusion gadgets.
This analysis was performed collaboratively by the institute of plasma physics on the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science beneath the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Aix-Marseille University in France, amongst different establishments. The findings had been revealed within the journal Science Advances on Friday.
A tokamak is a toroidal gadget that employs magnetic confinement to obtain managed nuclear fusion. It resembles a helical “magnetic racetrack,” successfully confining high-temperature plasma to promote fusion reactions. Plasma density, a vital parameter affecting tokamak efficiency, straight impacts the speed of fusion reactions.
Historically, researchers have acknowledged that plasma density has an higher limit. When this limit is reached, the plasma turns into unstable, escapes magnetic confinement, and releases substantial power onto the gadget’s inside partitions, thereby jeopardizing operational security.
While long-term worldwide fusion analysis has indicated that the bodily processes triggering the density limit happen on the plasma-wall boundary area, the underlying mechanisms have remained unclear.
In this examine, the Chinese analysis staff developed a self-organized plasma-wall interplay theoretical mannequin. Through this mannequin, they recognized the vital position of radiation instability induced by boundary impurities in triggering the density limit, thereby elucidating the underlying mechanism.
Building on this theoretical perception, researchers experimentally managed the plasma to exceed the density limit and efficiently guided it into a brand new “density-free zone.”
These outcomes mark the primary experimental affirmation of such a zone in tokamaks. This revolutionary work not solely gives key insights into understanding the density limit but in addition establishes an necessary bodily foundation for high-density operation in tokamaks, in accordance to the scientists.
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