Completion and trial operation of the superconducting magnets for the Large Helical Device

The Large Helical Device (LHD) is a plasma physics experimental device having two superconducting helical coils and three pairs of poloidal coils. All assembly and attachment works of LHD were completed in January 1998. The trial operation and the first plasma ignition of the eight-year Phase I project for LHD were finished in March just as planned. After that time the first cycle plasma experiment was carried on at a plasma central field of 1.5 T. The second cycle experiment is now conducted. The LHD magnets will be excited to a central field of 3.0 T in December 1998.