Infrared surface temperature measurements for long pulse operation, and real time feedback control in Tore-Supra, an actively cooled Tokamak

Abstract

Tore-Supra is a Tokamak (Ip=1.5MA, Bt=4T) aiming at doing researches in the field of controlled nuclear fusion. It has been constructed with a steady-state magnetic field using super-conducting magnets and water-cooled plasma facing components for high performances long pulse plasma discharges. When not actively cooled, plasma-facing components can only accumulate a limited amount of energy since the temperature increase continuously (T˜sqrt(time)) during the discharge until radiation cooling is equal to the incoming heat flux (T>1800K). Such an environment is found in the most today Tokamaks. In the present paper we report the recent results of Tore-Supra, especially the design of the new generation of infrared endoscopes to measure the surface temperature of the plasma facing components. The Tore-Supra system is described in details, the new JET infrared thermography system is presented and some insight of the ITER set of visible/infrared endoscope is given.