ITER LHCD Plans and Design

LH waves experimentally exhibit the highest current drive efficiency at low plasma temperature, therefore they are the most suitable candidates for controlling the current profile in the off axis part of ITER steady state plasmas. For this purpose, a 5 GHz, 20 MW CW LH system has been designed, that relies on a generator made of 24 klystrons, 1 MW each, 60 metres long circular oversized transmission lines, and one antenna, based on the Passive Active Multijunction (PAM) concept. High reliability of the launcher is achieved, by limiting the power density to 33 MW/m2. Together with the overall system description, the present results achieved toward ITER are presented. The different ongoing projects are listed. The outstanding problems are depicted