[en] A huge power source is needed for developing Chinese national economy in next century. Development of fusion energy is a good choice for China. Both solid breeder blanket and liquid metal (LM) blanket technology have been developing for ages. Some research results are given and how to develop the blanket technology to the next level is also discussed in present paper

[en] Impurity control, edge plasma physics, acceptable recycling and proper plasma facing materials (PFMs) with long enough lifetime are the major concerns in plasma wall interaction (PWI) investigations in China. The wall conditioning using Ti getter, carbonization and boronization techniques have been conducted. Pump limiter and bias limiter were tested in HL-1 tokamak for impurity control. Low and middle-Z coatings have been developed and tested but the bonding between coating and matrix was not satisfactory enough. Graphite, doped graphite and C/C composite are now the main PFMs for current tokamaks in China. A significant modification of chemical sputtering (CS) resistance has been achieved using doped graphite. (orig.)

[en] The fusion-driven multi-functional hybrid reactor system (FDS) is proposed as a middle step toward the final application of fusion energy. The strategic goal and roadmap of the FDS is addressed along with its potential advantages. Selection analysis of required materials are performed as well as those of fusion driver concept, hybrid blanket concept for the FDS in China

[en] There are two phases of fusion reactor materials R and D in China. The first phase will focus on fusion materials R and D for fusion breeders (or breeders for short) and in the second phase fusion materials for commercial pure fusion reactors will be developed. China is now in the first phase. Now development of reduced activation oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steels, low- and high-Z plasma facing materials, including carbon base materials, Be, advanced W-alloys and functionally graded material, will be emphasized. Limited research activities for the second phase, e.g. V-Cr-Ti alloys and SiC/SiC composite development, are also supported. Fusion reactor materials R and D status in China is introduced and some research results are also given in present paper

[en] Full text of publication follows. The exploration of steady-state operation is one of the scientific goals on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). It includes issues of development of non-inductive current drive, long pulse plasma control, advanced fuelling, removal of particles and heat flux from plasma facing components (PFC), integration of all real-time feedback control which include several diagnostics, long-pulse heating and current drive systems, long pulse analogue integrator and data acquisition system. For achieving ultra long pulse operation, daily 1000 s integrator benchmarking was carried out to minimize linear and non-linear drifts. Accordingly, a linear drift correction was introduced to cancel all drifts from integrators in PCS. Detail methods for achieving 400 seconds operation have been given in this paper from plasma control point of view. In order to alleviate heat load on divertor plates during long pulse operation, strike points sweeping technique was explored by periodically switching plasma configuration from upper single null (USN) to lower single null (LSN). A set of wall-conditioning technologies in superconducting machines (RF-DC, HF-GDC) were explored and developed. Lithium wall conditioning was the key performed to reduce recycling and control the density in the experiment. Supersonic molecular beam injection and steady-state pellet injector were used for low fuel retention during ultra long pulse operation. Over 30 s repeatable H-mode and a totally non-inductive current driven over 400 s plasma discharges were obtained in the last campaign in 2012. Future challenges for controlling over 20 MW CW heating and current drive power will be discussed on EAST towards the high performance steady state operation in near future. (author)

[en] Both solid tritium breeder blanket and liquid metal self-cooled blanket for fusion reactor are being developed in China. For liquid metal self-cooled blanket concept, it is well known that the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effect and compatible are not only efficiency but also major feasibility issues. Some MHD-experiment studies has been done in the liquid metal experimental loop (LMEL) in China recently. In the tokamak reactor especially for engineering and experimental fusion reactor, it maybe occurred that magnetic field sudden down to zero in accident. Therefore, one must understand the procedure of the MHD pressure drop changing due to the magnetic field sudden change. But the data now available are very poor. In the experiments, the detail procedures of the MHD pressure drop and flow velocity changing due to magnetic field B=1.97T sudden down to zero were measured. The results from these measurement are presented and compared to analytical prediction value

[en] The behaviors of graphite, C/C composites and TiC coatings have been tested under near plasma disruption conditions simulated by intense laser beam. Low-Z materials used in the present experiments were G3 and ISO-880U graphite, three kinds of 3D carbon fiber reinforced carbon composites (3D-C/C) and CVD TiC coatings on Mo and G3 graphite. The plasma disruption simulation was carried out with a Nd:YAG laser. The duration of the laser pulse was 0.1 ms while the incident laser energy density on the specimens was up to 1.89 MJ/m² for a single laser pulse. So the incident laser power density was up to 1.89 MW/cm² during 0.1 ms and corresponding value of φt^1/2 was up to 18.91 kJ/(cm² s^1/2), where φ is the power density of the incident laser (kW/cm²) and t is the duration of the laser pulse (s). The weight loss and crater depth on the specimens and microstructure photographs of radiated specimen surfaces are given in the paper. (orig.)

[en] Recent progress of long pulse H-mode operation on EAST is reported. A steady state long pulse H-mode discharge duration over 100s with ITER like tungsten divertor has been obtained using only RF heating and current drive. 0D modeling suggests high power injection and high confinement quality are prerequisites for the next goal of high bootstrap current (f_bs∼50%). Techniques of broadening current density profile for improving confinement is demonstrated. (author)

[en] Thermal fatigue is a key issue that the first wall material faced plasma in pulse operation reactors. A SUS304L steel was used in the experiment to study its thermal fatigue behavior using a self-designed machine. Constant amplitude temperature cycling tests with and without occasional peak temperature were performed. The results showed that the fatigue life of the steel decreased rapidly with the increase of the temperature range. Occasional peak temperature caused the fatigue life to decrease greatly. Fatigue striation and cleavage fracture were observed of the specimen fracture surface. (author)

[en] A liquid Metal Experimental Loop (LMEL) has been built up at Southwestern institute of Physics (SWIP), China, recently. The working fluid, ²²Na⁷⁸K (NaK), was running at near room temperature in LMEL and the flow rate of NaK was up to 230 l/min. Electromagnet offers a transverse magnetic field as high as up to 1.97 Tesla in its pole gap of 70^*17^*8cm³. The maximum Hartmann number M and interaction parameter N reached to 0.75^*10⁴ and 2.5^*10⁴, respectively. Many experiments on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pressure drop study have been finished at LMEL and some results are given in this paper. The experimental research for next step will focus on MHD pressure drop in test section with insulator coating and a simulation experiment research about the effect of microcracks in insulator coating on MHD pressure drop and flow velocity distribution. (author)