RFX-mod: Recent Achievements and Future Perspectives in the Context of the European Roadmap

The European roadmap towards the realization of fus ion energy [1] decisively aligns any effort on scientific and technological fusion resea rch in Europe along a goal-oriented program, i.e. the construction and exploitation of ITER and the preparation of the demonstration reactor plant DEMO. The integrated ap proach encompasses the reorientation of science and technology programs, i nternational collaborations, education and training schemes as well as the industry involv ement, with resources to be focused on few specific objectives. In this context of growing competiveness it is quite important for RFX-mod to carefully reflect upon its own potential contribution to the scientific community and consider if and where its program may be redirected to better exploit the opportunities of the roadmap. RFX-mod is a 2MA reversed field pinch experiment wi th strong connections with the wider fusion community. The intrinsically 3D nature of the RFP helical states defines a natural relationship with the stellarator while the possibility of running in Tokamak configuration (180 kA, 0.5 T) makes the powerful MH D active control system of RFX of direct interest to the tokamak community. All this is well testified by strong bi-directional collaborations with stellarator and tokamak laborat ories worldwide. The sharing of the stellarator 3d codes to describe equilibrium, trans port and stability of the single helicity on RFX-mod and the successful tests on DIII-D of th e sub 2 q tokamak scenarios developed at RFX are two good examples in that res pect. Investigations on basics physics, such as for examp le non linear MHD, plasma wall interactions and the exploration of new regions of the parameter space - as with the low q scenario - are indeed possible in a flexible and m edium size experiment and represent activities that can be considered truly DEMO relev ant. In this contribution the possible projection of the RFX program in the next future is examined on the background of the European roadmap starting from the most recent achievements to then describe the current thoughts on machine modifications. In particular a new electromagnetic front end - with m ore sensors and field error correction coils - that would further reduce the maximum plasm a deformation and a W wall that should lead to a reduced recycling for a better den sity control, are considered to be important steps for improving the RFX performance, deepening the understanding of the RFP configuration and further strengthening the col laboration with the international fusion community. [1] http://www.efda.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/0 1/JG12.356-web.pdf?91a98e