The plasma arc has many useful characteristics such as high temperature, highly intense radiation and high current. Therefore, it is broadly applied in the industrial world for applications in material processing, lighting, and waste treatment. It is useful for lighting and plasma treatment of hazardous wastes because it has a highly intense radiation. In this paper, we tried to measure the collected temperature at the focus. A highly intense radiant power equipment with a semi-oval reflector has been developed in order to understand the basic characteristics. The temperature at the focus and its distribution in the argon-filled chamber are measured as a function of the current. The temperature increases in proportion to the current, and the maximum temperature at the focus is 407 degreesC at 125 A current and 0.02 m arc length. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.