S. Tanaka et al., INITIATION OF PLASMA CURRENT WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON WAVES IN THE WT-3 TOKAMAK, Nuclear fusion, 33(3), 1993, pp. 505-513
In the WT-3 tokamak, the toroidal plasma current is started and ramped
up to 6.3 kA by the electron cyclotron (EC) wave alone, without Ohmic
heating (OH) power. After generation of the plasma current by the EC
wave, the OH current can be started up with a very low ohmically induc
ed electric field, i. e. < 0.32 V/m, which is extremely small compared
with that (2.5 V/m) in an OH discharge with the assistance of EC reso
nance preionization. The low value of the starting loop voltage is in
accordance with the requirements of the ITER design. It is demonstrate
d that the loop voltage and the flux of the OH transformer can be redu
ced considerably when the EC power is used for preionization and start
up of the toroidal current before initiation of an OH discharge in tok
amaks.