KSTAR plasma commissioning to support the tokamak physics experiments

Abstract

At the beginning of every KSTAR campaign, during the plasma commissioning period, a stable tokamak plasma operation condition is aimed to be established to support various physics experiments throughout the rest of the KSTAR campaign. To achieve this, considering the KSTAR's superconducting operation, the plasma startup recipe is confirmed, and every component of auxiliary devices for fuel, heating, and diagnostics must be checked. A robust plasma startup scenario has been secured at the beginning of every plasma commissioning period for all plasma experiments. Then, the commissioning work deals with the plasma shaping and the auxiliary devices for fueling and heating. As the last stage, the radial profile diagnostics are tested by moving the plasma boundary and varying the operating toroidal magnetic field for cross-validation in a dedicated session. This paper explains in detail the established routine process for plasma commissioning in the KSTAR campaign.