Scientists May Have Solved Two of Fusion Energy’s Biggest Problems at Once

Researchers on China’s EAST tokamak demonstrated a new plasma regime that simultaneously lowers divertor heat loads and suppresses edge-localized modes (ELMs).

By carefully seeding light impurities, they created a detached divertor and a turbulence-dominated pedestal while preserving strong confinement.

The roughly one-minute test suggests a promising route to making fusion plasmas more stable and reactor components easier to protect.

The work, led by the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was reported in Physical Review Letters.