EAST (ASIPP) — Frontier Milestones

Profile

Chinese 'artificial sun' tokamak; 160M°C (2021) and 1,066 s plasma (2025).

Editorial profile — compiled by us from public sources.

Headquarters: Hefei, China

Current standings

Standings and milestones are always verified by us against primary sources, regardless of who manages the profile.

Plasma temp 160M°C 160M°C for 20 s (2021) Plasma duration 1.1ks 1,066 s high-confinement (2025)

Roadmap & milestones

EAST surpasses the Greenwald density limit

2026-01

EAST (ASIPP) / CAS

EAST ran stable plasmas at 1.3–1.65× the Greenwald density limit (vs the usual 0.8–1.0) using ECRH-assisted ohmic start-up — clearing a decades-old barrier in magnetic confinement. Higher density lifts the fusion rate and the triple product toward breakeven. Published in Science Advances (Jan 2026); ASIPP, Huazhong University and Aix-Marseille.

Paper · 2026-01