Active MHD control experiments in RFX-MOD

The RFX reversed field pinch experiment has been modified (RFX-mod) to address specific issues of active control of MHD instabilities. A thin shell (tau(Bv)similar to 50 ms) has replaced the old thick one (tau(Bv)similar to 500 ms) and 192 (4 poloidal x 48 toroidal) independently powered saddle coils surround the thin shell forming a cage completely covering the torus. This paper reports the results obtained during the first year of operation. The system has been used with various control scenarios including experiments on local radial field cancellation over the entire torus surface to mimic an ideal wall ('virtual shell') and on single and multiple mode feedback control. Successful virtual shell operation has been achieved leading to: a 3-fold increase in pulse length and well controlled 300 ms pulses(similar to 6 shell times) up to similar to 1MA plasma current; one order of magnitude reduction of the dominant radial field perturbations at the plasma edge and correspondingly 100% increase in global energy confinement time. Robust feedback stabilization of resistive wall modes has been demonstrated in conditions where rotation does not play a role and multiple unstable modes are present.