The new Error Field Correction Coil controller system in the Joint European Torus tokamak

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design Vol. 86; no. 6; pp. 1034 - 1038
• Main Authors: Alves, D., Vitelli, R., Zaccarian, L., Zabeo, L., Neto, A., Sartori, F., McCullen, P., Card, P.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.10.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer programs; Control; Control theory; Controled nuclear fusion plants; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Error Field Correction Coils; Exact sciences and technology; Focusing; Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy; Real-time; Software; Tokamak devices; Voltage amplifiers; Waveform generators; Waveforms; Control; Real-time; Error Field Correction Coils; Tokamak; Nuclear fusion reactor; Software; Real time; Algorithm
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2010.12.007

Recently at JET, performance issues and practical limitations led to the decision of replacing the EFCCs voltage amplifiers. The opportunity was also taken to reformulate and improve the controller application by incorporating it into a new real-time software framework, developing a new control algorithm and revising the time synchronization mechanism whilst maintaining essentially the same Versa Module European (VME) based hardware components. Furthermore, a new graphical user interface configuration utility has been developed mainly to accommodate the new controller’s waveform generator capability of nesting waveforms and enabling simultaneous sweeping in frequency, amplitude and offset. In this paper, a global overview of the new controller application will be provided focusing mainly on the above mentioned improved elements. Preliminary results of the operation of this system during JET pulses will also be presented.