The group of 25 articles published in this special issue of Nuclear Fusion aims to monitor the progress made with experiments on fusion physics that have been conducted worldwide up to the end of 2004. These articles are based on overview reports from the various experimental teams presented at the Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2004). This conference was organized by the IAEA together with the Portuguese host organization CFN-IST and was held in Vilamoura, Portugal, in early November 2004. The overviews presented at the conference have been rewritten and extended for the purpose of this special issue and submitted to the standard double-referee peer-review of Nuclear Fusion. Most teams have made use of this opportunity. Therefore this issue, which also includes four conference summaries, presents a reasonably complete picture of the progress made since FEC 2002 in Lyon.The articles are placed in the following sequence:Conference summariesTheory of magnetic confinementExperimental confinement, plasma-material interactions and innovative conceptsExperiments on stability, energetic particles, waves and current driveInertial confinement fusionTokamaksPerformance: JT-60U, JET, DIII-D, ASDEX-U, C-MODSteady state/long pulse operation: Tore Supra, HT-7, TRIAMSpherical tokamaks: MAST, NSTXTritium experiments: JETDiagnostics and heating methods: JET (diagnostics), T-10 (ECRH and diagnostics) and FTU (LHH + ECRH)New devices: HL-2A Small devicesAlternative magnetic confinement conceptsStellarators: LHD, TJ-IIReversed field pinches: MSTInertial confinementDirect driveHeavy ion beam fusionReaders will also notice the supplementary issue of the journal (volume 45, issue 10A). This extra issue contains the 15-year overview report on progress in fusion research as written by the International Fusion Research Council (IFRC) under the editorial responsibility of the IFRC. Both issues together will give the interested reader a state-of-the-art picture of the progress in nuclear fusion research.
本特刊中发表的25篇文章旨在总结截至2004年底全球范围内开展的聚变物理实验所取得的进展。这些文章基于各实验团队在聚变能源会议（FEC 2004）上提交的综述报告。该会议由国际原子能机构（IAEA）与葡萄牙主办方CFN-IST共同组织，于2004年11月初在葡萄牙维拉莫拉举行。会议上的综述报告经扩展和修改后提交至本特刊，并接受了《Nuclear Fusion》期刊标准的双审稿人同行评审。大多数团队都利用了这一机会。因此，本特刊还收录了四篇会议总结，较为完整地呈现了自2002年里昂FEC会议以来所取得的进展。文章按以下顺序排列：会议总结；磁约束理论；实验约束、等离子体与材料相互作用及创新概念；稳定性、高能粒子、波与电流驱动实验；惯性约束聚变；托卡马克装置性能：JT-60U、JET、DIII-D、ASDEX-U、C-MOD；稳态/长脉冲运行：Tore Supra、HT-7、TRIAM；球形托卡马克：MAST、NSTX；氚实验：JET；诊断与加热方法：JET（诊断）、T-10（ECRH与诊断）及FTU（LHH + ECRH）；新装置：HL-2A；小型装置；替代磁约束概念；仿星器：LHD、TJ-II；反场箍缩：MST；惯性约束聚变；直接驱动；重离子束聚变。读者还会注意到本刊的增刊（第45卷第10A期）。该增刊包含了国际聚变研究理事会（IFRC）在其编辑责任下撰写的关于聚变研究进展的15年综述。两期合在一起，将为感兴趣的读者呈现聚变研究进展的最新全景图。