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In SST-1 and Aditya-U Tokamaks, two ECRH systems (42GHz-500kW and 82.6GHz-200k) are used to carry out various experiments related to ECRH assisted plasma start-up and heating at fundamental and second harmonic. The SST-1 tokamak is operated at 1.5T magnetic field and 42GHz ECRH system has been extensively for plasma start-up and heating. The 82.6GHz ECRH could not be used thoroughly due limitation in power as 200kW power is not enough for breakdown in SST-1 at second harmonic. The original 82.6GHz-200kW ECRH system is being upgraded in terms of ECRH power to carry out experiment at higher power. The 82.6GHz-200kW Gyrotron has been upgraded to 400kW power. The Gyrotron has been tested successfully at factory and delivers 400kW power at 48kV cathode voltage and draw around 20A cathode current, the efficiency of Gyrotron is around 42%. The 82.6GHz Gyrotron will be commissioned at IPR and the total ECRH power 0.9MW (0.5MW at 42GHz and 0.4MW at 82.6GHz) will facilitate to carry out ECR heating experiments simultaneously at fundamental and second harmonic. The paper presents the recent test results of 82.6GHz-400kW Gyrotron and discusses the experimental plan with upgraded ECRH system.

A 42GHz-500kW ECRH system [1-6] is used to carry out various experiments related to plasma breakdown and ECR heating on tokamaks SST-1 and Aditya-U. The system has been upgraded with new anode modulator power supply to launch two ECRH pulses to carry out breakdown and heating simultaneously. In SST-1, ECRH system is used routinely for plasma breakdown at fundamental harmonic, approximately 150kW power is launched for 70ms to 150ms duration and consistent plasma start-up is achieved in SST-1. In the recent experiments, second EC pulse is also launched at the plasma flat-top to heat the plasma, some heating signatures are seen but more experiments will be carried out to confirm the plasma heating with ECRH. In Aditya-U tokamak, simultaneous plasma breakdown and heating experiments are carried out successfully [2]. In the first pulse around 100kW power in fundamental O-mode is launched for 70ms duration for the breakdown at low-loop voltage and around 150kW ECRH power for 50ms duration is launched in second EC pulse to heat the plasma. In case of Aditya-U, plasma heating is observed clearly as soft X-ray signal increases sharply with ECRH. In AdityaU tokamak, deuterium plasma experiments have been carried out and ECRH launched at the flat-top of deuterium plasma current. In deuterium plasma also ECR heating is observed as soft X-ray signal increases with ECH power. For SST-1, ECRH system is being upgraded with another 82.6GHz system, this system would be used to carry out plasma heating and start-up at second harmonic. The 82.6GHz system is already connected with the SST-1 tokamak, the old 82.6GHz-200kW Gyrotron will be upgraded to 400kW system to carry out effective heating experiments on SST-1 at higher ECRH power. The paper discusses the recent results of ECRH experiments carried out on tokamaks SST-1 & Aditya-U and presents the upgradation plan of EC system for SST-1.

The Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) system is an important heating system for the reliable start-up of tokamak. The 42GHz and 82.6GHz Gyrotron based ECRH systems are used in tokomaks SST-1 and Aditya to carry out ECRH related experiments. The Gyrotrons are high power microwave tubes used as a source for ECRH systems. The Gyrotrons need to be handled with optimum care right from the installation to its Full parameter control operation. The Gyrotrons are associated with the subsystems like: High voltage power supplies (Beam voltage and anode voltage), dedicated crowbar system, magnet, filament and ion pump power supplies and cooling system. The other subsystems are transmission line, launcher and dummy load. A dedicated VME based data acquisition & control (DAC) system is developed to operate and control the Gyrotron and its associated sub system. For the safe operation of Gyrotron, two level interlocks with fail-safe logic are developed. Slow signals that are operated in scale of millisecond range are programmed through software and hardware interlock in scale of microsecond range are designed and developed indigenously. Water-cooling and the associated interlock are monitored and control by data logger with independent human machine interface.

In the tokamaks ECRH system is used for pre-ionization, start up, heating, current drive and suppression of NTMs (Neo Classical Tearing Modes). A Standard ECRH system consists of high power microwave source Gyrotron, circular corrugated waveguide based transmission line and launcher. The Focused ECH power is launched into plasma through launcher. The microwave beam emerges out from circular corrugated waveguide and propagates freely in air with finite divergence. So focusing and plane mirror combination is used to launch focused beam in plasma. Thus an ECRH launcher consists of metallic profiled and plane mirror, UHV compatible vacuum barrier window and a UHV gate valve. One 42 GHz gyrotron capable of delivering 500 kW of power for 500 ms and other 82 GHz gyrotron capable of delivering 200 kW of power for 1000s are used for SST-1 ECRH system. The launcher design consists of mirror design, design of supports and design of steering mechanism to provide suitable movements with minimum backless error. The whole assembly is UHV compatible. The launcher is capable of steering the beams by ±20° in both toroidal and poloidal directions. Mirrors are given motion by means of one rotary and one linear feedthrough. For 82 GHz launcher active cooling is provided, whereas for 42 GHz launcher no active cooling is provided. A detailed analysis is carried out for the mirrors of the high power launcher. The heat load for the 82 GHz launcher is 2 kW (~1% absorption) and for 42 GHz launcher it is 5 kW. For 82 GHz launcher, the maximum steady state surface temperatures of focusing and reflecting mirrors are 315K and 323K and von-mises stresses are within 10 MPa. Similarly for 42 GHz launcher maximum temperatures observed during 500 ms pulse are 301K and 303K for focusing and reflecting mirrors respectively. This paper explains the mechanical and thermal design and analysis of the launcher for the ECRH system.