Course on Tokamak operation

Tokamaks are basically electric-driven machines and are mainly controlled by electric currents which need to be controlled in real-time. As they must be fast-feedback, it is impossible to do it at a human time-scale, so discharges needs to be previously schedule and planned in advance. But before issuing a discharge, the machine need as well to be in very clean shape, so most tokamaks undergo a cleaning procedure either daily or before each campaign. Using ISTTOK as an example we will devise in this course the process to operate regularly a tokamak, how to monitor it's nominal performance and the peripheral systems such as vacuum background pressure, vessel conditioning, power supply and energy storage.