Abstract
This meeting belongs to a series of topical events which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, Vienna) organizes in a regular basis on crucial aspects of nuclear fusion research, or related in particular to ITER physics or a technological application relevant to the nuclear fusion reactor. Each Technical Meeting series has a specific object; the events are called on a two–three years basis and are recommended by the IAEA advisory body for Fusion, the International Fusion Research Council (IFRC) . The object of the IAEA-TM held in Como, Italy, 2–5 May 2005, was the application in ITER of powerful Electron Cyclotron waves in the millimeter wave frequency range for plasma Heating and noninductive Current Drive. The meeting was the third on this subject. There were 42 presentations to an audience of about 60 delegates from 16 countries.
The main goal of this series of IAEA-TM is to bring together specialists of the different branches involved in the project, in the effort of the best understanding of the limits and capabilities of each one of the different fields of research and development. Millimeter-wave source developers, millimeter-wave system designers and plasma physicists, theoreticians and experimentalists in all of the fields, exposed their way of addressing the problem in plenary sessions attended by all participants. Discussions on the different topics of gyrotron development, launcher options and physics application were continued in forums following the presentations.
The specialist reader will find in this volume in particular the latest developments concerning the frequency, the output power and the efficiency of the gyrotrons which are now being considered the preferred type of high power millimeter wave generators for ECH/ECCD applications in the fusion reactor. The debate on the launcher of the EC waves, in the form of Gaussian beams, is presently very active, with a few options on the table to be merged in one optimized and integrated design. Concerning the applications to the ITER plasma, most attention was dedicated to the use of ECCD to actively control and stabilize Magneto-Hydrodynamic instability Modes, with an increasing attention to the need and the crucial issues of the automation of such a control in the reactor.
The general reader should find an up-to-date presentation of the potential and of the limits of the use of high power millimeter waves in fusion plasmas, and have a vivid image of the interplay between sources, systems and plasma physics in such an application.
The conference was held under the scientific responsibility of IAEA, Vienna, and hosted and organized in Como, Italy, by the Istituto di Fisica del Plasma, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Milan.