Fusion Physicists Found a Way Around a Long-Standing Density Limit
ScienceAlert••science
Key Points:
- Physicists at China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) successfully exceeded the Greenwald limit, a previously accepted density cap for plasma in fusion reactors, by carefully controlling plasma-wall interactions during startup.
- By adjusting fuel gas pressure and applying electron cyclotron resonance heating, the team reduced impurities entering the plasma, enabling densities about 65% higher than the Greenwald limit without destabilization.
- This breakthrough challenges the notion that the Greenwald limit is a fundamental barrier, suggesting that fusion reactors can operate in a "density-free" regime through precise operational control.
- The findings offer a practical and scalable approach to enhance plasma density, potentially improving the performance of future tokamaks and fusion devices.
- Further experiments
