Progress towards steady-state operation and real time control of internal transport barriers in JET

In JET advanced tokamak research mainly focuses on plasmas with internal transport barriers (ITBs), generated by modifications of the current profile. The formerly developed optimised shear regime with low magnetic shear in the plasma center has been extended to deeply reversed magnetic shear configurations. ITBs occur at much lower access powers. The achievement of high fusion performance is reported in deeply reversed magnetic shear configuration. The generation of plasmas with wide ITBs in this configuration has allowed an extension of the accessible normalised toroidal beta at high magnetic field. We report on the successful sustainment and control of the electron and ion ITB in full current drive operation with a large fraction of bootstrap current. Progress towards the steady state capability of ITB plasmas includes techniques to avoid strong ELM activity and the newly developed real time control of the local ITB strength. Thanks to the real time control of the ITB characteristics the improved confinement state is maintained in a more reproducible and stable manner in quasi-stationary conditions. (author)