Upgrade of the TCV tokamak, first phase: Neutral beam heating system

•Widening the parameter range of reactor relevant regimes on the TCV tokamak.•Installation of 1MW, 30keV neutral beam, direct ion heating, access to Ti/Te≥1.•ASTRA simulation of plasma response to NB and EC heating in different regimes.•Specific low divergency neutral beam injector with tunable beam power and energy. Experiments on TCV are designed to complement the work at large integrated tokamak facilities (such as JET) to provide a stepwise approach to extrapolation to ITER and DEMO in areas where medium-size tokamaks can often exploit their experimental capabilities and flexibility. Improving the understanding and control requirements of burning plasmas is a major scientific challenge, requiring access to plasma regimes and configurations with high normalized plasma pressure and a wide range of ion to electron temperature ratios, including Te/Ti∼1. These conditions will be explored by adding a 1MW neutral heating beam to TCV's auxiliary for direct ion heating (2015) and increasing the ECH power injected in X-mode at the third harmonic (2MW in 2015–2016). The manufacturing of the neutral beam injector was launched in 2014.