To contribute to the fusion development by introducing robust, reliable and simple diagnostic methods for the operation of a fusion reactor.

Sensorics are the key to burn control and the success of fusion

Fusion research has entered a new era with the construction of ITER: the emphasis of the research shifts from the fundamental understanding of the plasma behavior, to the control of the burn. Focusing on the latter as the scientific challenge of the project, three different disciplines meet: the control systems to keep or bring the plasma at/to the desired state, the plasma physics modeling to predict the effect of the actuators at hand on the actual state, and the instrumentation development, to extract the present state of the plasma in the experiment. Integrating these three topics is the key to burn control and the success of fusion. The present focus is at the beam aided spectroscopy diagnostics: the charge exchange recombination spectroscopy to monitor the fusion ash and plasma temperature, and the motional stark effect diagnostic to control the current profile and plasma equilibrium. The group is involved in these activities for ITER, at W7x (Germany) and KSTAR (Korea).