In vessel characterization and first power tests on plasma of the real-time controllable EC launcher on FTU tokamak

The Electron Cyclotron (EC) fast launcher for real time control experiments has been installed on FTU and characterized to be fully integrated in a real-time MHD control module under development. The launcher scheme is based on a two module system, symmetric with respect to the equatorial plane of FTU, with a front steering concept and the launched beams are real-time controllable both in poloidal and toroidal directions. Specific design parameters, defined by the FTU MHD dynamics (typically island size and q profile changes), are the beam dimensions with zooming capabilities, the steering range and mirror speed with the most demanding requirement on poloidal speed of the Steering Mirror (SM) = 1 in 10 ms. A set of tests has been done to verify the system performance. High power tests of the launcher have been done on a 500 kA, 0.51020m-3 and 5.3 T plasma with 2300 kW of EC power delivered to the plasma. The steering mechanism was tested under the automatic control system and showed a dynamic response in line with the requirements. Results of these tests will be presented in the paper.