Since the successful completion of the cooling storage ring (CSR) project in China at the end of 2007, high qualitative heavy ion beams with energy ranging from keV to GeV/u have been available at the Heavy Ion Research Facility at Lanzhou (HIRFL). More than 10(9) 1 GeVlu C(6+) particles or 10(8) 235 MeV/u Xe particles can be stored in the CSR main-ring and extracted within hundred nano-seconds during the test running, the beam parameters will be improved in the coming years so that high energy density (HED) conditions could be achieved and investigated there. Recent scientific results from the experiments relevant to plasma research on HIRFL are summarized. Dense plasma research with intense heavy ion beams of CSR is proposed here. (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.