Megawatt-Class Gyrotron Developments for Today’s Plasma Fusion Experiments and Future DEMO in Europe

Nuclear fusion is seen as a long-term option for a sustainable, non-carbon emitting global energy supply. In France, 35 nations collaborate together to build ITER, the world’s largest nuclear fusion tokamak experiment. In parallel, a growing number of privately financed start-ups are emerging. All of those demand for powerful and efficient plasma heating methods. Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) is a possible option. It allows for plasma heating and localized plasma stabilization. Gyrotrons are the microwave sources which provide the necessary output power at megawatt-levels with sufficient efficiencies and at the required frequencies ranging from below 100 GHz to above 200 GHz. Significant R&D effort is ongoing in Europe to develop gyrotrons for the European fusion plasma experiments and the future DEMOnstration fusion power plant. It is driven by the European GYrotron Consortium (EGYC), which consists of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, the Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) at EPFL, Switzerland, the Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece, and the National Research Council in Italy (ISTP-CNR). IPP Greifswald, Germany is collaborating in the improvement of gyrotrons for W7-X. ... mehrPolytechnic of Turin (PoliTO) and the Polytechnic of Milan (PoliMI) are contributing to the R&D on cooling circuits and athode temperature control systems, respectively. Finally, the industrial design and manufacturing are performed by the European industrial partner THALES, France. This presentation focuses on the advances in gyrotron research and development at Europe.