Advances in the Ignitor program

The most significant recent advances that have been made within the Ignitor program are described. For physics, these involve the analysis of the confinement properties of plasmas produced in recent experiments with peaked density profiles relevant to Ignitor, the characterization of the regimes with double X-point configurations that Ignitor can generate, and the study of oscillatory states for the plasma pressure near ignition that can be obtained by both external and internal forms of control. On the engineering side, the second generation prototypes of the toroidal magnet plates that have been constructed are described. The completion of the design of the plasma chamber that withstands the estimated disruption forces, of the first wall system, including Mo tiles and associated supporting plates, and of the remote handling system is reported. Other relevant R and D activities (i.e. construction of a fast pellet injector) are being carried out. The design of all elements of the poloidal field system has been re-optimized. The analysis of the connection of Ignitor to a node of the European grid has been completed with positive results and official authorization. The set of currents in the machine coils, for a plasma current pulse of 11 MA, that minimizes the requirements of the machine electrical power supply system has been identified. (author)