Advanced tokamak research on JT-60

Kishimoto, Hiroshi; Ishida, Shinichi; Kikuchi, Mitsuru; Ninomiya, Hiromasa

The Japanese large tokamak JT-60 has been focusing its research emphases to develop a high performance plasma, namely high confinement, high temperature and high density, and to sustain it non-inductively for a long time with possible minimization of external power input. The first demonstration of high bootstrap current discharges in a high-poloidal-beta mode (high-p) and the concept development of a steady-state tokamak reactor SSTR based on this experimental achievement initiated the so-called "advanced tokamak research". The first observation of internal transport barriers in the JT-60 high-p mode was followed by the world-wide explorations of reversed shear discharges associated with internal transport barriers. The advanced tokamak research is now the major trend of the current tokamak development. A new concept of compact ITER was developed and proposed in the context of this advanced tokamak approach pursued on JT-60.