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The newly installed electron cyclotron heating and current drive (EC H&CD) system with a frequency of 170 GHz was successfully commissioned and used for the second-harmonic ECH-assisted startup in 2011 operational campaign of the KSTAR. As a RF power source, ITER pre-prototype of 170 GHz, 1 MW continuous-wave gyrotron, is loaned from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). During the KSTAR 2011 plamma campaign, maxumum pulse length of 10 sec at 0.6 MW EC beam was reliably injected into the plasma and the 170 GHz second harmonic ECH-assisted start-up was successful leading to reduce the flux consumption at toroidal magnetic field of 3 T. As a result, the flux consumption until the plasma current flat-top was reduced from 4.13 Wb for pure Ohmic to 3.62 Wb (12 % reduction) for the perpendicular injection. When the EC beam is launched with toroidal angle of 20 deg in co-CD direction, more reduced magnetic flux consumption was obtained with 3.14 Wb (24 % reduction) compared with pure OH plasmas. In recent, the gyrotron has been successfully commissioned with the output power of 1 MW and the pulse duration of 20 sec in KSTAR. This paper presents successful commissioning of 170 GHz EC H&CD system in KSTAR as well as the heating and startup experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In KSTAR device, a 110 GHz ECH system has been a useful heating device for a stable plasma start-up because a pure ohmic discharge scenario with a limited loop voltage of about 4 V was sometimes not successful for burn-through and plasma current ramp-up due to inconsistent wall conditioning and density control. Even though a pure ohmic discharge also was successful, the application of X2-mode ECH could reduce the flux consumption of poloidal field coils, leading to long pulse discharges. The ECH power was injected at the time of the field null formation after the onset of the toroidal electric field in which the electron temperature significantly increased up to 100 eV so that burn-through is overcome. The ECH heating enabled the formation of close flux surfaces earlier, leading to the reliable plasma current ramp-up, but, it caused outward plasma movement and failure of the plasma control, resulting in loss of the discharge. Moreover, impurities from the plasma facing components caused by not fully absorbed ECH power had a detrimental effect on the H-mode transition. In ECH-assisted start-up in the ramp-up phase, ECH power was mainly used for central electron heating, leading to reduction of the flux consumption of the central coils by increasing the electron temperature along with a density increase in the ramp-up phase. When X2-mode ECH power of 350 kW was injected at the mid-plane with a toroidal angle of 10 degree for 1 sec after the onset of the loop voltage, the flux consumption was reduced by about 30% in comparison with the pure ohmic discharges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 170 GHz Electron Cyclotron Heating and Current Drive (ECH/CD) system on KSTAR is designed to launch total 2.4 MW of power for up to 300 sec into the plasma. At present the first 1 MW ECH/CD system is under installation and commissioning for 2011 KSTAR campaign. The 170 GHz, 1 MW, 300 sec gyrotron and the matching optics unit (MOU) will be provided from JAEA under collaboration between NFRI and JAEA. The transmission line consists of MOU and 70 m long 63.5 mm ID corrugated waveguides with the eight miter bends. The 1 MW, 10 sec launcher is developed based on the existing two-mirror front-end launcher in collaboration with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Pohang University of Science and Technology, and is installed on the low field side in the KSTAR equatorial plane. The mirror pivot is located at 30 cm below from the equatorial plane. 3.6 MVA power supply system is manufactured and now is under commissioning to meet the triode gun operation of JAEA gyrotron. The power supply consists of 66 kV/55 A cathode power supply, mode-anode system, and 50 kV/160 mA body power supply. In this paper, the current status of KSTAR 170 GHz, 1 MW ECH/CD system will be presented as well as the experimental plan utilizing 170 GHz new ECH/CD system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electron cyclotron heating (ECH)-assisted startup was successful in the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) first plasma campaign completed in June, 2008. It was observed that the second harmonic EC wave of 0.35 MW was sufficient to achieve breakdown in the ECH pre-ionization phase, to allow burn through, and to sustain the plasma during the current ramp with a low loop voltage of 2.0 V. This corresponds to a toroidal electric field of 0.24 Vm-1 at the innermost vacuum vessel wall (R = 1.3 m). Since there is no feedback control of the plasma radial position in the initial phase of the KSTAR first plasma campaign, wall contact caused the plasma current fall to zero soon after the ECH beam was turned off. Extending pulse duration of the ECH power to 190 ms allowed the plasma current to rise up to more than 100 kA with a ramp-up rate of 0.8 MA/s and the pulse duration of 210 ms. Later in the first plasma campaign, the plasma was sustained up to 865 ms with the help of additional heating of 350-ms long ECH beam and with the help of the plasma radial position feedback control. The plasma current in the pre-ionization phase was observed and it is considered to be pressure-driven Pfirsch-Schlüter current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]