Towards control of steady state plasma on Tore Supra

Magnetic Fusion Research worldwide is now, with ITER, about to demonstrate the scientific feasibility of fusion energy production. Feedback control of fusion experiment gets more and more crucial both for performance, stability and machine protection. The Tore Supra tokamak is well suited to tackle these issues due to its unique capability to perform long duration discharges with many actuators/sensors available. The Tore Supra real time measurements and control system has been upgraded to address schemes dedicated to long pulse operation with simultaneous control of an increasing number of plasma parameters. A review of recent progress on several key control issues like measurement drift during long pulses, high efficient fuelling, plasma current profile tailoring, plasma facing component protection and self plasma protection is given.