AbstractAfter 3 years of operation we report on major experimental issues obtained on Tore Supra: reproducible plasma performance at 1.6 MA and 4 T (design parameters 1.7 MA, 4.5 T), behaviour of the plasma facing components and ergodic divertor, 0.8 MA plasma current generation by HF waves (3.7 GHz, 4MW), pellets injection. A short description of Tore Supra is given. This paper will also deal with some technical aspects of Tore Supra: The replacement of the damaged TF coil and the analysis of the short circuit between two pancakes which occurred in this coil on 8 July 1988. The superconducting toroidal-field coils of Tore Supra use superfluid helium bath cooling (1.8 K at 0.1 MPa), and to take full advantage of the superfluid helium, the winding is made from bare conductors with only 2 mm thick spacers. The new protection system, which aims to reduce the voltage in case of quenching coil between pancakes at a level lower than the voltage needed to sustain an arc in helium. This protection system features two discharge time constants; a short one of 20 s in the quenching coil, and a long one of about 120 s for the discharge of the other coil on an external resistance. This is, of course, obtained at the expense of an uneven distribution of the forces acting on the coils. Calculations show that the stresses remain at an acceptable level.