Employing International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) scaling laws for the energy confinement time tau E, burn conditions for an ignited deuterium-tritium (DT) plasma with self-consistent inclusion of helium ash are transformed from the beta , T plane into the ne, T and the beta , T planes. The linear and non-linear stabilities of these burn equilibria are studied, taking into account not only the usual temperature and density fluctuations, but also fluctuations of the fuel concentrations. It is shown that extending the application of ITER scaling for tau E to the dynamics of unstable plasma states is reasonable and leads to an appreciable stabilization. Furthermore, methods of stabilizing unstable burn equilibria dynamically and through feedback control are discussed. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning the optimal burn regime, including the requirements of burn stability, the restrictions by operational limits ( beta and density limits) due to magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability requirements, and performance demands, such as the attainable fusion power Pfus and the fraction gamma =Prad/Palpha of alpha particle heating power that can be radiated away