Thermal behavior of ICRH antennas on Tore Supra

The goal of the CIEL project on Tore Supra is to demonstrate a heat removal capability of 15MW convected plus 10MW radiated, over typical pulses of 1000s. Nearly all of this heating power will be delivered by RF systems, including ICRH. It is thus crucial to make sure that the RF system itself can sustain high thermal loads for long times. A systematic study of the thermal behavior of Tore Supra ICRH antennas has been undertaken, by means of visible and infrared light cameras. Experimental results demonstrate a variety of edge-antenna interaction phenomena, depending on the plasma configuration and the location on the plasma facing components (PFCs).