Real-time optical plasma boundary reconstruction for plasma position control at the TCV Tokamak

A dual, high speed, real-time visible light camera setup was installed on the TCV tokamak to reconstruct optically and in real-time the plasma boundary shape. Localized light emission from the plasma boundary in tangential view, broadband visible images results in clearly resolved boundary edge-features. These projected features are detected in real-time and transformed to the poloidal plane to obtain a measurement of the plasma boundary. Plasma boundary reconstructions of diverted plasma discharges are presented, showing agreement of within 1 cm compared with magnetic equilibrium reconstruction. The resulting real-time plasma shape measurement is applied in a feedback control loop for the plasma position, demonstrating effective stabilization and tracking of the plasma vertical position.