NUCLEAR FUSION CONTROL-ORIENTED PLASMA PHYSICS AITOR J. GARRIDO¹, IZASKUN GARRIDO¹, M GORETTI SEVILLANO-BERASATEGUI¹, MIKEL ALBERDI¹, MODESTO AMUNDARAIN¹, OSCAR BARAMBONES² AND ITZIAR MARTIJA³ ¹Dpto. de Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática. EUITI de Bilbao. La Casilla, 3. 48012. Bilbao ²Dpto. de Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática. EUI Vitoria. Nieves Cano 12. 01006. Vitoria-Gasteiz ³Dpto. de Ingeniería Mecánica. EUITI de Bilbao. La Casilla, 3. 48012. Bilbao Universidad del País Vasco / University of the Basque Country SPAIN aitor.garrido@ehu.es Abstract: - The development of control techniques for the efficient and reliable operation of a fusion reactor is one of the most challenging issues nowadays and it would provide great advantages over existing energy sources: Unlimited fuel availability, no greenhouse gases, lack of radioactive waste and no risk of a nuclear accident. In this paper it is made a control-oriented review of the nuclear fusion technology, providing a description of the fusion process focused in the most used fusion reactor topology: the tokamak. To do that, a development of the MHD equations of plasma is stated, which are usually applied together with the transport equations in codes as ASTRA for simulation purposes, with the aim of providing an adequate background for control engineers to derive control-oriented tokamak plasma models. Keywords: - Plasma Physics; Fusion Control; Tokamak Modeling and Simulation. 1 Introduction The control of plasma in fusion processes is an area of increasing interest, due to the relevance that new energy research is acquiring, involving ambitious international projects of great significance as the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). This international research and development project aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. The partners in the project are the European Union, the People´s Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA, and contemplates the construction of a tokamak reactor in France, [1]. In the last years, substantial effort and resources are currently being devoted into the development of a clean nuclear technology, which is based upon fusion processes. This effort materializes both in a large number of research papers published, specially in the field of Control Engineering applied to fusion processes, as well as the publication of special sections on the part of the IEEE Control Systems Magazine (see [2] and [3]), establishing an area of novel application for Control Theory after some timid efforts in the 50s and beginning of the 90s. In spite of fossil, fission, hydroelectric, and renewable (wind, geothermal, solar, etc.) energies, the predictions on the world-wide energy consumption point towards an energy deficit due to the increment of the demand and the decrement of the energy resources derived from fossil fuels (see [4]). This is, together with the climate change effects, the main reason why it is necessary to obtain clean and alternative energy sources, [5]. In this sense, even when controlled fusion is extremely technologically challenging, a fusion- power reactor would offer significant advantages over existing energy sources. In particular, there exists sufficient fuel supply for several thousand years since the necessary hydrogen isotopes can be generated from water and abundantly available lithium, during the reaction cycle. Unlike fission, fusion would produce no air pollution or greenhouse gases during normal operation since the fusion reaction product is helium. In contrast to fission, a Proceedings of the 13th WSEAS International Conference on SYSTEMS ISSN: 1790-2769 375 ISBN: 978-960-474-097-0