Radio-frequency hands-on for nuclear fusion Master’s students

Abstract

High-power continuous-wave radio-frequency (RF) systems in the megawatt range are commonly used in nuclear fusion experiments. Such kinds of RF systems being rather rare, Master’s students do not know how these systems are used in practice – even students engaged in nuclear fusion courses. This is the reason why, as part of the French and European Master’s in fusion physics and technologies, dedicated practical work on topics related to plasma RF heating are proposed to students. Over a few days, these students discover how to perform RF measurements and succeed in characterizing real-scale components used in plasma RF heating experiments. This paper details four hands-on approaches which have been conducted over eight years with several tens of students having no prior knowledge in RF engineering.