Personnel protection during the operation of Thomson scattering laser system on COMPASS tokamak

A recently installed Thomson scattering diagnostic on COMPASS tokamak uses two high power lasers. The presented protection system ensures laser safety of the personnel. Protection covers three areas–laser laboratory, spectrometer laboratory and tokamak hall. Laser protection system inputs are controlling the covering of the laser beam path, the entrance doors, the beam shutters and the laser cooling. Six regimes are defined for the protection system, covering all operation of the laser system, including laser service and low power beam alignment. Hardware implementation of the protection is based on PLC. The system is controlled via PCs with a touch screen. Connection to the COMPASS personnel protection system is described.