High power electron cyclotron heating in ISX and ORMAK Upgrade at ORNL

A phased program of plasma heating at the electron cyclotron frequency is proposed for the Oak Ridge tokamaks ISX and ORMAK Upgrade. The past history of the program of electron cyclotron heating (ECH) at ORNL on mirrors and in the ELMO Bumpy Torus has been successful. Future technological developments in the production of high power high frequency microwave tubes look promising at this time. The physics of wave propagation and particle heating are fairly well understood and indicate the viability of this technique. Studies on breakdown and on runaway electron reduction will provide useful information for larger machines. Recent experiments in the USSR on small tokamaks have shown that ECH is a viable heating technique. Providing that the microwave tubes become available, the engineering considerations suggest that the technique is practical and workable, based on present day technology