Tokamak start-up with electron-cyclotron heating

Experiments are described in which the start-up voltage in a tokamak is reduced by about a factor of two by the use of a modest amount of electron cyclotron resonance heating power for pre-ionization. The solution of the zero-dimensional start-up equations indicates that the effect is due to the high initial density which increases the rate at which the conductivity increases in the neutral-dominated initial plasma. The effect extrapolates favourably to larger tokamaks. A 50% reduction in the start-up volt-second requirement and impurity reflux is also observed.