Abstract. Stable and reliable fusion plasma operation requires increasingly advanced control systems. This is especially true for steady-state operation in advanced modes, when several parameters are to be simultaneously optimised: e.g. the current profile, which has been related to the formation of internal transport barrier, and the density, which plays a crucial role both in the fusion power and in the plasma wall interactions. At a more technological level, good management of the power entering and leaving the plasma is required, by efficient additional heating coupling, and with a full control of radiation and convection losses and distribution to the first wall elements. For these goals, several feed-back mechanisms have been developed with success on Tore-Supra, in the past four years. Most of them are based on software, implemented in a set of micro-computers connected through a VME network.
IAEA 2001