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The Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX) is a medium-sized reversed field pinch (RFP) device under construction at the University of Science and Technology of China. The KTX has a major radius of 1.4 m and a minor radius of 0.4 m with an Ohmic discharge current up to 1 MA. The expected electron density and temperature are, respectively, 2 × 10 19 m −3 and 800 eV. A combination of a stainless steel vacuum chamber and a thin copper shell (with a penetration time of 20 ms) surrounding the plasma provides an opportunity for studying resistive wall mode instabilities. The unique double-C design of the KTX vacuum vessel allows access to the interior of the KTX for easy first-wall modifications and investigations of power and particle handling, a largely unexplored territory in RFP research leading to demonstration of the fusion potential of the RFP concept. An active feedback mode control system is designed and will be implemented in the second phase of the KTX program. The recent progress of this program will be presented, including the design of the vacuum vessel, magnet systems and power supplies.

This study investigated the direct production of octenyl succinic anhydride modified starch (OSA-starch) by a non-conventional mechanical activation (MA)-assisted solid phase synthesis (MASPS) technology without the use of solvents and additives in a stirring ball mill. FTIR analysis confirmed that the OSA-starches with different degrees of substitution (DS) had been successfully produced by MASPS with different MA time, ascribing to the changes in structure and physicochemical properties induced by intense mechanical actions. XRD and SEM analyses showed that the crystal structure and morphology of starch were significantly disrupted after the process of MASPS. The OSA esterification of starch by MASPS resulted in the increase of coldwater solubility, transparency, and emulsion stabilization, and the reduction of paste viscosity and retrogradation, and these changes were enhanced with the increase of MA time. It indicated that the OSA-starch prepared by MASPS possessed some unusual functional properties, which can be favorable for special applications.

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The essential role of zonal flow in the L-H transition and the suppression of turbulence have been studied with a long range correlation technique using Langmuir probe arrays in EAST tokamak. Two toroidally localized probe arrays are used to measure the zonal flow during L-H transition and H-L back transition. The energy ratio of the low frequency zonal flow to the total drift wave turbulence is calculated. During ELM-free H mode, the energy ratio is higher than that in L mode, which reveals the important role of zonal flows in regulating turbulence amplitude in L-H transition.

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A sensitive plasma absorption probe (PAP) is reported for measuring electron density in processing plasmas. The sheath formed around the probe tip is important for the resonance of surface waves. For determining the absolute electron density from the absorption frequency of the sensitive PAP, a proper value of sheath thickness relative to the Debye length is required to be assigned in the data processing. In this paper, a dual-role PAP has been proposed to study the effects of sheath thickness on the measurement of electron density. It is used as a Langmuir probe and a sensitive PAP simultaneously. Based on these two functions, the sheath thickness is calibrated before the measurement of electron density. The calibrated value is assigned in the data processing to replace the fitting coefficient used in the previous work. Therefore, the measurement error caused by an inaccurately assigned sheath thickness can be minimized effectively. Because of the bi-functional characteristic, the dual-role PAP is an independent diagnostic tool.

The Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX) is a new reversed field pinch (RFP) device at the University of Science and Technology of China. The construction and assembly of KTX, including the vacuum chamber, conducting shell, magnetic field windings, power supply system, active control coils, vacuum pump and data acquisition system, have been completed on August 1, 2015. Immediately following that, the first plasma was obtained on August 15, 2015. Intensive conditioning of the machine is underway to ramp up the plasma current toward its full operation. An active feedback mode control system has been built and has been implemented to control the error field around the vertical gaps of the conducting shell. The pulsed power supply systems of ohmic heating field and toroidal field (TF), using thyristor and energy storage capacitors, have been tested and commissioned. The TF power supply has flexibility in being able to operate with a reversed TF configuration and stable TF configuration. The fundamental diagnostic tools are developed for early KTX operation. Currently, the plasma current is up to 205 kA and the maximum discharge length is 21 ms, approaching to the conducting shell penetration time. Furthermore, typical RFP discharges are being produced with RFP state lasting 2 ms. These initial operation results for KTX are described in detail.