Overview of steady state operation of HT-7 and present status of the HT-7U project

Significant progress has been made on the HT-7 superconducting tokamak recently. Repeatable plasma discharges for up to 10.7 s have been routinely obtained, which nearly reached the present limit of the PF system. LHCD experiments have been successfully carried out. A full LH wave current drive for up to 3 s has been achieved. A quasi-steady-state H mode was observed with a very high plasma density for LHCD. ICRF waves were used for wall conditioning, startup, and fast wave and ion Bernstein wave heating. A new RF conditioning technique is shown to be a very powerful means of conditioning future large superconducting tokamaks. The physical design of HT-7U has been nearly finished. The engineering design and some R&D have started. A 2:3 model of the TF coil and a 1:4 model of the central solenoid with a cable in conduit conductor cable have been finished. Testing of the coils will start soon. The engineering design is under way in accordance with the schedule.