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Tokamak Discoveries, 'Firsts' and 'Onlys' |
Not primarily intended for the non-technical audience! Notable discoveries include:
| Phenomenon Discovered | Discovered at . . . | Date |
| First tokamak | TMP, USSR (Sometimes known incorrectly as TMB.) | 1954 |
| First tokamak operating outside the Soviet Union | LT-1 (later converted to LT-2 and 3), Australia | 1964 |
| First use of a metallic liner inside the torus | T-1, USSR | 1958 (approx.) |
| First tokamak to demonstrate plasma disruptions | TM-3, USSR | 1963 |
| First full carbon first wall | TM-3, USSR | 1963 |
| First tokamak to study runaway electrons systematically | LT-3, Australia | 1960s |
| Identification of magnetic islands (although this terminology was not used at the time). | TM-2, USSR | 1966 |
| First machine to produce 'significant' neutrons. | TM-3, USSR | 1971 |
| First injection of frozen fuel pellets | Ormak, USA | 1972 (approx.) |
| First tokamak where NBI heating exceeded ohmic heating | Ormak, USA | 1972 (approx.) |
| Discovery of ion-ion hybrid resonance scenarios | TM-1VCh | 1973 (approx.) |
| First demonstration of feedback control of plasma position using variable vertical magnetic field. | TO-1, USSR or CLEO, UK |
1973 (approx.) |
| First use of a poloidal divertor | JFT-2a (DIVA), Japan | 1975 (approx.) |
| First demonstration of impurity control using a divertor | JFT-2a, Japan | 1975 (approx.) |
| First machine designed to use Lower Hybrid waves as a current drive mechanism. | Versator II, USA | 1977 |
| First use of Nb3Sn superconductor on a tokamak | TRIAM-1M, Japan | 1978 (approx.) |
| First neutral beam heating | CLEO, UK | 1970s (approx.) |
| First tokamak to use superconducting coils (TF only) | T-7, USSR | 1970s |
| Development of the Hugill Diagram | DITE, UK | Late 1970s |
| First observation of RF-driven current using the Lower-Hybrid Wave | JFT-2, Japan | 1980 |
| First demonstration of a beta limit (before theory predicted it) | ISX-B, USA | 1980 (approx.) |
| First observation of fishbone instability | PDX, USA | 1980 (approx.) |
| First use of beryllium as a plasma facing material, reducing Zeff by a factor of two. | UNITOR, Germany | 1982 |
| Development of Boronisation (with di-borane) as a vessel conditioning system | TEXTOR, Germany | 1980s |
| First experimental observation of ballooning modes | TFTR, USA | 1980s (approx.) |
| First experimental observation of kinetic Alfvén wave - an important validation of kinetic theory. | TCA, Switzerland | 1980s (approx.) |
| First demonstration of H-mode | ASDEX, Germany | 1982 |
| First current drive from breakdown by LH | PLT, USA | 1985 |
| Discovery of boot-strap current | TFTR, USA | 1986 |
| First observation of ‘monster’ sawteeth, stabilised by fast ions | JET, EU | 1986 |
| First 'stable AC operation' of a tokamak | STOR-1M | 1987 |
| First observation of the 'snake' (an m=1 density perturbation seen by the soft X-ray cameras following pellet injection). | JET, EU | 1988 |
| First use of saddle coils to simulate error fields | COMPASS-D, UK | 1989 |
| First machine capable of studying synergy between ECRH and LH | FTU, Italy | 1990 |
| First D-T plasma, (using trace quantities of tritium) | JET, EU | 1991 |
| First magnetic fusion experiment to use fusion power plant fuel mixture of 50% deuterium (D) and 50% tritium (T) | TFTR, USA | 1993 |
| First demonstration of radio frequency heating of a D-T plasma using second harmonic tritium resonance | TFTR, USA | 1994 |
| First experimental observation of the "enhanced reversed shear" confinment mode | TFTR, USA | 1994 |
| First production of Internal Transport Barrier (ITB) in high beta H-mode plasmas | JT-60, Japan | 1994 |
| First observation of neoclassical tearing modes | TFTR, USA | 1995 |
| First unambiguous measurements of self-heating by alpha particles in a DT fusion plasma | TFTR, USA | 1995 |
| First machine to operate in multi-cylce flat top mode | ISTTOK, Portugal | 1990s (approx.) |
| First fully remote exchange of complete divertor | JET, EU | 1998 |
| First fully superconducting tokamak (TF and all PF coils) | EAST, China | 2006 |
| First observation of 3D feature geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) zonal flows. | HL-2A, China | 2006 |
| 100% bootstrap current achieved. | TCV, Switzerland | 2006 |
| Only machine capable of adjusting TF ripple | JET, EU | Present day |
| Only tritium compatible tokamak today | JET, EU | Present day |
| Only tokamak capable of achieving negative triangularity. | TCV, Switzerland | Present day |
| Only tokamak to be capable of AC operation on a regular basis | ISTTOK, Portugal | Present day |
If you would like to suggest another notable discovery to add to this table, please contact me with evidence to support your claim.
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