Pulsed electric system for production and confinement of plasma in ETE (spherical tokamak experiment)

This paper presents the design and first results of the Pulsed Electric System of ETE tokamak. The three fundamental pulsed power circuits in ETE are the Toroidal Magnetic Field Circuit (50 kA/spl times/1.25 kV/spl times/1 MJ), the Vertical Field Circuit (6 kA/spl times/10 kV/spl times/0.1MJ) and the Ohmic Heating Circuit (20 kA/spl times/8 kV/spl times/0.7 MJ), where the parameters are given for the first phase of ETE operation, when 220 kA plasma currents lasting 15 ms should be achieved. However, a major upgrade in the stored energy in all circuits is planned to allow a second phase of operation with plasma currents up to 400 kA. ETE has started operation in November 2000 with about 15% of the energy available for the first phase, enough to produce plasma currents of about 50 kA.