The EC H&CD Transmission Line for ITER

The transmission line (TL) subsystem associated with the ITER electron cyclotron heating and current drive system has reached the conceptual design maturity. At this stage the responsibility of finalizing the design has been transferred from the ITER Organization to the U.S. Domestic Agency. The purpose of the TL is to transmit the microwaves generated by the 170-GHz gyrotrons installed in the radio-frequency building to the launchers located in one equatorial and four upper tokamak ports. Each TL consists of evacuated HE11 waveguides, direct-current breaks, power monitors, mitre bends, polarizers, switches, loads, and pumping sections and will have a typical length that ranges from 100 to 160 m. Overall transmission efficiency could be as high as 92% depending on the specific path between a given gyrotron and launcher. All components are required to be 2-MW compatible, and their layout and organization have been optimized for simplifying the maintenance accessibility and monitoring the primary tritium barrier integrity. Two different TL layouts are at the moment under study, to accommodate the two alternative options for the European sources: four 2-MW units or eight 1-MW units. In this paper the actual design is presented and the technical requirements are discussed.