Analysis of Heating Schemes in ITER

ITER, Latin for "The Way", is the world's largest experimental fusion device, currently being built in southern France as part of an international fusion research and development collaboration. ITER aims to demonstrate that fusion energy is scientifically and technologically feasible. It is the bridge to DEMO (DEMOnstration Power Plant), one of the first fusion power plants to demonstrate large-scale electricity production.Auxiliary heating systems are essential to bring the plasma in ITER to the temperature required for fusion. These systems will consist of ion cyclotron resonance frequency (ICRF) heating, electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and neutral beam injection (NBI). We have analysed the ICRF heating schemes in ITER using, for the first time, integrated modelling with the ICRF modelling code PION, integrated into the European Transport Solver (ETS) workflow within the ITER Analysis and Modelling Suite (IMAS). Overall, our results suggest that the plasma response to changes in ICRF heating, e.g. via changes in minority ion concentration, can be highly non-linear. Further self-consistent simulations of ICRF and plasma transport physics are required to optimise the resulting plasma performance.