Speaker
Description
Fusion power plants based on magnetic confinement concepts will operate in long-pulse, largely burning-plasma regimes with intense high-energy neutron fluxes, gamma heating, and high thermal loads. In this environment, today's scientific multi-diagnostic approach becomes impractical, since these systems are typically one-of-a-kind, low-TRL solutions that have not historically been optimised for harsh environments and that create large openings in potential breeding and shielding structures. This work presents the Modular Diagnostics Platform (MDP): a microwave-based, port-plug–integrated measurement complex that consolidates a minimal yet sufficient set of fusion-plant-relevant diagnostics into a standardized, maintainable product architecture. The MDP integrates plasma-facing components and observation apertures, transmission lines, graded neutron/gamma shielding, thermal management, vacuum boundaries, and shared utilities (power, cooling, pneumatics/gas services, and tritium monitoring) within a common mechanical envelope and interface specification. This "port-as-a-product" design enables factory qualification, reduces penetrations and first-wall footprint, and supports remote-handling exchange at both full-plug and sub-module levels, including vacuum-preserving local isolation strategies. Reliability is addressed through redundancy by design (geometric redundancy, dual-chain hardware redundancy, multi-band microwave spectral redundancy, and algorithmic redundancy via reconstruction). The core of the measurement system consists of microwave diagnostics, including interferometry, reflectometry, electron cyclotron emission radiometry, and Collective Thomson Scattering. These diagnostics provide information on critical core plasma parameters, including electron density and temperature profiles, fluctuations, fast-particle distribution, and fuel ratio. Microwave systems enable the placement of sensitive receiving and generating equipment behind neutron and gamma protection barriers, using waveguide lines optimised for transmission within a specific frequency band. On the engineering side, combining multiple diagnostic transmission lines reduces the number of at-risk components, thereby increasing shielding volume and efficiency. The Versatile Integrated Data Acquisition (VIDA) backend enables a synchronized control and acquisition pipeline for real-time reconstruction of the plasma state, supported by model-based software and synthetic diagnostics. VIDA provides a standardized set of plasma parameters, along with their associated uncertainties and reliabilities, for use by plant control and protection systems.