Requirements for ITER diagnostics

The development and design of plasma diagnostics for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) present a formidable challenge for experimental plasma physicists. The large plasma size, the high central density and temperature and the very high thermal wall loadings provide new challenges for present measurement techniques and lead to a search for new methods. But the physics and control requirements for the long burn phase of the discharge, combined with very limited access to the plasma, constrained by the requirement for radiation shielding of the coils and sharing of access ports with heating and current drive power, remote manipulation, fueling and turn blanket modules, make for very difficult design choices. An initial attempt at these choices has been made by an international team of diagnostic physicists, gathering together in a series of three workshops during the ITER Conceptual Design Activity. This paper is based on that report and provides a summary of its most important points. To provide a background against which to place the diagnostic requirements and design concepts, the ITER device, its most important plasma properties and the proposed experimental program will be described. The specifications for the measurement of the plasma parameters and the proposed diagnostics for these measurements will then be addressed, followed by some examples of the design concepts that have been proposed. As a result of these design studies, it was clear that there were many uncertainties associated with these concepts, particularly because of the nuclear radiation environment, so that a Research and Development Program for diagnostic hardware was established. It will also be briefly summarized