CREATION AND CONTROL OF VARIABLY SHAPED PLASMAS IN TCV

During the first year of operation, the TCV tokamak has produced a large variety of plasma shapes and magnetic configurations, with 1.0 less than or equal to B(tor)less than or equal to 1.46T, I-p less than or equal to 800kA, kappa less than or equal to 2.05, -0.7 less than or equal to delta less than or equal to 0.7. A new shape control algorithm, based on a finite element reconstruction of the plasma current in real time, has been implemented. Vertical growth rates of 800 sec(-1) corresponding to a stability margin f=1.15, have been stabilized. Ohmic H-modes, with energy confinement times reaching 80ms, normalized beta (beta(tor)aB/I-p) of 1.9 and tau(E)/ITER89-P of 2.4 have been obtained in single-null X-point. deuterium discharges with the ion grad B drift towards the X-point. Limiter H-modes with maximum line averaged electron densities of 1.7x10(20)m(-3) have been observed in D-shaped plasmas with 360kA less than or equal to I-p less than or equal to 600kA.