Electromagnetic Models of Plasma Breakdown in the JET Tokamak

This paper presents the electromagnetic modeling of the plasma current breakdown phase of the JET tokamak. The first part of this paper models the presence of the JET iron core up-down asymmetry and the effects of the eddy currents in the reconstruction of the magnetic topology needed for the plasma start. The second part describes the approach used to evaluate the ionized particle connection length inside the vacuum chamber at breakdown. The results obtained are validated using JET experimental measurements.