FIRE, a novel concept of massive gas injection for disruption mitigation in ITER: Validation on Tore Supra

•Bursting Disc Cartridge Injector has been tested on Tore Supra.•Very high particle flux can be injected for disruption mitigation.•Direct (ballistic) penetration of gas jet into hot plasma is observed.•Radial penetration of gas jet stops at q=2 surface and turns to poloidal propagation.•This prototype demonstrates the proof of principle of such a design.