An ohmic heating circuit for the CASTOR tokamak

To extend the duration of the CASTOR tokamak discharge to the limit given by the toroidal magnetic field pulse, a simple ohmic heating circuit is proposed. It exploits two condenser banks charged to different voltages and switched by means of an ignitron switch. The circuit parameters are chosen so as to achieve optimum current ramp-up and flat-top phases. The choice of parameters was checked using a simple computer code, with the nonlinear magnetization of the transformer core being taken into account. The results of calculation are compared with those of an experimental test shot with a discharge current and duration of 19 kA and 40 ms, respectively. (J.U.). 3 figs., 4 refs