ABSTRACT
The requirements of ITER neutral beam injectors (1 MeV, 40 A negative deuterium ion current for 1 h) have never been simultaneously attained; therefore, a dedicated Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) was set up at Consorzio RFX (Padova, Italy). The NBTF includes two experiments: SPIDER (Source for the Production of Ions of Deuterium Extracted from Rf plasma), the full-scale prototype of the source of ITER injectors, with a 100 keV accelerator, to investigate and optimize the properties of the ion source; and MITICA, the full-scale prototype of the entire injector, devoted to the issues related to the accelerator, including voltage holding at low gas pressure. The present paper gives an account of the status of the procurements, of the timeline, and of the voltage holding tests and experiments for MITICA. As for SPIDER, the first year of operation is described, regarding the solution of some issues connected with the radiofrequency power, the source operation, and the characterization of the first negative ion beam.
ABSTRACT
The megavolt ITER injector and concept advancement experiment is the prototype and the test bed of the ITER heating and current drive neutral beam injectors, currently in the final design phase, in view of the installation in Padova Research on Injector Megavolt Accelerated facility in Padova, Italy. The beam source is the key component of the system, as its goal is the generation of the 1 MeV accelerated beam of deuterium or hydrogen negative ions. This paper presents the highlights of the latest developments for the finalization of the MITICA beam source design, together with a description of the most recent analyses and R&D activities carried out in support of the design.
ABSTRACT
A scheme of a neutral beam injector (NBI), based on electrostatic acceleration and magneto-static deflection of negative ions, is proposed and analyzed in terms of feasibility and performance. The scheme is based on the deflection of a high energy (2 MeV) and high current (some tens of amperes) negative ion beam by a large magnetic deflector placed between the Beam Source (BS) and the neutralizer. This scheme has the potential of solving two key issues, which at present limit the applicability of a NBI to a fusion reactor: the maximum achievable acceleration voltage and the direct exposure of the BS to the flux of neutrons and radiation coming from the fusion reactor. In order to solve these two issues, a magnetic deflector is proposed to screen the BS from direct exposure to radiation and neutrons so that the voltage insulation between the electrostatic accelerator and the grounded vessel can be enhanced by using compressed SF6 instead of vacuum so that the negative ions can be accelerated at energies higher than 1 MeV. By solving the beam transport with different magnetic deflector properties, an optimum scheme has been found which is shown to be effective to guarantee both the steering effect and the beam aiming.
ABSTRACT
Two Neutral Beam Injectors (NBI) are foreseen to provide a substantial fraction of the heating power necessary to ignite thermonuclear fusion reactions in ITER. The development of the NBI system at unprecedented parameters (40 A of negative ion current accelerated up to 1 MV) requires the realization of a full scale prototype, to be tested and optimized at the Test Facility under construction in Padova (Italy). The beam source is the key component of the system and the design of the multi-grid accelerator is the goal of a multi-national collaborative effort. In particular, beam steering is a challenging aspect, being a tradeoff between requirements of the optics and real grids with finite thickness and thermo-mechanical constraints due to the cooling needs and the presence of permanent magnets. In the paper, a review of the accelerator physics and an overview of the whole R&D physics program aimed to the development of the injector source are presented.
ABSTRACT
In the framework of the development of the ITER neutral beam (NB) system, a test facility is planned to be built in Padova. A full size prototype of the ITER heating NB injector (MITICA) shall be built and tested at full beam power (17 MW) as per ITER requirements. The design of the MITICA beam source has further progressed following updated optimization and overall integration criteria. In the paper, the major design choices and revisions are presented, together with some results of numerical analyses carried out in order to assess the electrostatic and thermo-mechanical behaviour of the source.
