China's artificial sun gets its first plasma

The photo taken on Sept. 28 shows the airscape of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in the Institute of Plasma Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province. The EAST got its first plasma Thursday marking the start of the physical experimental phase of the EAST project. The EAST tokamak has not only superconducting toroidal coils, but also superconducting poloidal coils. It is expected that the fusion could offer human beings with steady, highly effective, safe and unexhaustable energy in the middle of the 21st century or later.

The photo taken on Sept. 28 shows the airscape of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in the Institute of Plasma Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province.

The process of the experiment of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is shown on a screen in the Institute of Plasma Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province on Sept. 28, 2006.