Status of the ITER IC H&CD System

The ITER Ion Cyclotron Heating and Current Drive system will deliver 20 MW of radio frequency power to the plasma in quasi continuous operation during the different phases of the experimental programme. The system also has to perform conditioning of the tokamak first wall at low power between main plasma discharges. This broad range of requirements imposes a high flexibility and a high availability. The paper highlights the physics and design requirements on the IC system, the main features of its subsystems, the predicted performance, and the current procurement and installation schedul

Status of the ITER Ion Cyclotron H&CD system

The ongoing design of the ITER Ion Cyclotron Heating and Current Drive system (20 MW, 40-55 MHz) is rendered challenging by the wide spectrum of requirements and interface constraints to which it is subject, several of which are conflicting and/or still in a high state of flux. These requirements include operation over a broad range of plasma scenarios and magnetic fields (which prompts usage of wide-band phased antenna arrays), high radio-frequency (RF) power density at the first wall (and associated operation close to voltage and current limits), resilience to ELM-induced load variations, intense thermal and mechanical loads, long pulse operation, high system availability, efficient nuclear shielding, high density of antenna services, remote-handling ability, tight installation tolerances, and nuclear safety function as tritium confinement barrier. R&D activities are ongoing or in preparation to validate critical antenna components (plasma-facing Faraday screen, RF sliding contacts, RF vacuum windows), as well as to qualify the RF power sources and the transmission and matching components. Intensive numerical modeling and experimental studies on antenna mock-ups have been conducted to validate and optimize the RF design. The paper highlights progress and outstanding issues for the various system component