Identification of the plasma contour in a RFP configuration

The paper describes a method for the identification of the plasma shape in a toroidal device for fusion experiments based on magnetic confinement. The method, developed for the RFX machine, makes use of the magnetic measurements and takes into account the electromagnetic effects of a conductive vacuum vessel and of a stabilizing shell. These effects are quite important in "fast" machines such as the RFPs of the present generation