Progress in the ITER physics basis, 8; Plasma operation and control

Gribov, Y.*; Humphreys, D. A.*; Kajiwara, Ken*; Lazarus, E. A.*; Lister, J. B.*; Ozeki, Takahisa; Portone, A.*; Shimada, Michiya*; Sips, A. C. C.*; Wesley, J. C.*

This chapter describes the progress achieved in these areas in the tokamak experiments since the ITER Physics Basis (1999 Nucl. Fusion 39 2577) was written and the results of assessment of ITER to provide the plasma initiation and basic control. This chapter considers only plasma initiation and plasma basic control. The experiments on plasma initiation performed in DIII-D and JT-60U, as well as the theoretical studies performed for ITER, have demonstrated that, ITER can produce plasma initiation in a low toroidal electric field of 0.3V/m, if it is assisted by about 2MW of ECRF heating. The plasma basic control is described, which includes control of the plasma current, position and shape - the plasma magnetic control, as well as control of other plasma global parameters or their profiles - the plasma performance control.