EAST windows were closed Monday, May 19, signaling the kickoff of 2014 first round of EAST experiment campaign, after nearly 20-month-long upgrading break since September 2012.  

Tremendous efforts have been made during past two years to enhance the EAST capabilities; nearly every sub-system except superconducting magnets has been upgraded or modified to enable higher performance and truly steady state operation. In the coming experiment, ASIPP hopes that EAST can realize high performance steady-state operation of over 400s plasma duration, which is also one of ITER future targets.  

The major upgrades include: 

1. H&CD systems increase to 26MW from 10MW, namely 4 MW CW 2.45GHz and 6MW 4.6GHz LHCD systems, 12MW CW ICRF system with wide band frequency of 26-70MHz, 4MW 50-80keV NBI system. The 2nd NBI and 2MW ECRH of 140GHz could be ready in October. 

2. 74 different diagnostics are installed, and all key profiles of plasma parameters will be collected during the coming experiments. 

3. Upper divertor has been changed into ITER-like W monoblock configuration with up to 10MW/m2 heat removing capacity. 

4. Top and bottom internal crypumps have been installed with a 160M3/s pumping speed. 

5. 16 ITER-like RMPs and 2 VS coils have been installed to better control MHD and plasma vertical displacements. 

6. Fast control power supply and plasma control system have been upgraded to facilitate the control of high plasma performance discharges. 

7. Other systems, such as PF&TF power suppliers, cryogenic system, baseline, HTc superconducting feeder and fueling systems have also been upgraded towards more reliable operation condition. 

EAST starts pump-down. The plasma operation is expected at the end of June after a successful cooling down and a full commissioning of all upgraded sub-systems. The coming campaign will be completed around the end of July. The major task of the campaign is to tune each and every sub-system well so that they perform with a high reliability and availability, to establish a solid technical base for the next campaign. Over 100s H-mode is foreseen in this campaign. 

2014 EAST second experiment is planned to start from October when the second NBI and ECRH are ready, and last till the end of January 2015.  

As always, EAST is open to all world fusion communities. Calls for experiment proposals will be sent out in early September with a list of detailed machine capabilities and diagnostics. We look forward to working with our international partners to achieve exciting results on EAST. 

EAST Device