Experimental Testing of the European TH1509U 170-GHz 1-MW CW Industrial Gyrotron – Long Pulse Operation

The upgraded European 1-MW, 170-GHz continuous wave (CW) industrial prototype gyrotron (TH1509U) for electron cyclotron resonance heating and current drive in ITER was tested at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In this work, we report on the major achievements during the experimental campaigns that took place intermittently between October 2020 and July 2021. The upgraded gyrotron clearly surpassed the performance of the previous TH1509 tube. In particular, TH1509U delivered (i) 0.9 MW in 180 s pulses (maximum possible pulse length with the KIT test stand) and (ii) more than 1 MW at a pulse length limited to 40 s, due to an unforeseen problem with the test stand cooling circuit at that time. In addition, it was possible to also demonstrate gyrotron operation at (iii) 0.5 MW in 1600 s pulses. The experiments will be continued at the FALCON test stand at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).