Experimental Results of the EU ITER Prototype Gyrotrons

^a Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), IHM, Kaiserstr. 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
^b European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy (F4E), Barcelona, E-08019, Spain
^c Swiss Plasma Center (SPC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
^d Istituto di Fisica del Plasma, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via R.Cozzi 53, 20125 Milano, Italy
^e Faculty of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Zografou, GR-157 84, Athens, Greece
^f Thales Electron Devices, 2 rue Marcel Dassault, Vélizy-Villacoublay, F-78141, France
^g University of Stuttgart, IGVP, Pfaffenwaldring 31, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
^h National Technical University of Athens, Greece

^* Corresponding author: gerd.gantenbein@kit.edu

Published online: 23 October 2017

Abstract

The European 1 MW, 170 GHz CW industrial prototype gyrotron for ECRH&CD on ITER was under test at the KIT test facility during 2016. In order to optimize the gyrotron operation, the tube was thoroughly tested in the short-pulse regime, with pulse lengths below 10 ms, for a wide range of operational parameters. The operation was extended to longer pulses with a duration of up to 180 s. In this work we present in detail the achievements and the challenges that were faced during the long-pulse experimental campaign.