Exploitation of Modularity in the JET Tokamak Vertical Stabilization System Exploitation of Modularity in the JET Tokamak Vertical Stabilization System

Preprint of Paper to be submitted for publication in Control Engineering Practice " This document is intended for publication in the open literature. It is made available on the understanding that it may not be further circulated and extracts or references may not be published prior to publication of the original when applicable, or without the consent of the Publications Officer, The contents of this preprint and all other JET EFDA Preprints and Conference Papers are available to view online free at www.iop.org/Jet. This site has full search facilities and e-mail alert options. The diagrams contained within the PDFs on this site are hyperlinked from the year 1996 onwards. AbstrAct The Vertical Stabilization system of the JET tokamak has been recently upgraded. This new system enables a more sensitive control of the plasma geometry and can withstand larger perturbations, enabling to push the plasma performance to its limits without risking a severe control loss, which might endanger the machine integrity. The project was successfully delivered in the course of 2009. This paper introduces the new JET Vertical Stabilization design, discussing how its modular architecture enabled the system to provide different experimental features in several operational environments. Furthermore, some of the major achievements of the commissioning activity and of the regular operation during the 2008/2009 experimental campaigns are presented.