Local control unit for ITER-India gyrotron test facility (IIGTF)

Abstract Electron Cyclotron system on ITER, is one of the important RF ancillary systems based on high power Gyrotron RF sources, that is used for plasma heating and current drive applications. To operate a Gyrotron source, various auxiliary systems and services such as Super Conducting Magnet set, High Voltage Power Supplies, Auxiliary Power Supplies, Waveguide components, Cooling water system and a Local Control Unit (LCU) are required. The LCU plays a very crucial role for the safe and reliable operation of Gyrotron system. A dedicated full scale ITER prototype LCU is being developed for testing and commissioning of an ITER like Test Gyrotron at ITER-India Gyrotron Test facility (IIGTF). The main functions of LCU include Sequence Control, Local Interlock Protection and Real Time Data Acquisition. PLC based slow controller is used for implementing the Sequence Control & Slow Interlock functions. Critical Protection Interlocks are required to have a response time of Necessary controller hardware is procured and several pre-prototype developments have been taken up to establish the critical subsystems such as protection interlocks and SCU. Software applications for PLC and PXIe systems are being developed using LabVIEW TM and CODAC Core System platforms. Here, we provide an overview of the prototype LCU for IIGTF, which includes the architecture, implementation topology, prototype test results along with the current status.