Developing disruption avoidance functions for the ITER plasma control system

Abstract Disruption avoidance is a key facet of the overall task to manage tokamak disruptions. This paper defines the disruption avoidance function as being a component of the ITER plasma control system (PCS) exception handling. Defining this component of the ITER PCS is essential since its functions require dedicated attention for both design and deployment. This paper aims to bridge the gap between research and development of conceptual functionality and obtaining real-time codes for the ITER PCS that can be confidently deployed during Start of Research Operation—the first campaign to be executed on ITER. The paper provides a first breakdown and design status of specific ITER PCS disruption avoidance functions. The current functional breakdown is compared with various research efforts and functions tested on present tokamaks. This allows the identification of open issues and complications. Possible research studies are identified which will be able to strengthen the preparation of the ITER disruption avoidance functions prior to the start first operation.