Commissioning of the heating neutral beam injector on the TCV tokamak

Abstract

The TCV tokamak mechanical structure has been recently adapted to leave access for a neutral beam injector (NBI) capable of 1MW of neutral power during 2s into the TCV plasma. Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) was in charge of design and procurement this equipment, considering the experimental constraints imposed both by the future physics objectives of TCV, and the mechanical requirements complying with the limited space available for installing the material inside the tokamak building. The development, the design phase, as well as the preparation work have been described in Fasel et al. (2015); Karpushov et al. (2015) [1,2].This paper will concentrate on the description of the commissioning of the NBI system at the Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) site. The main results obtained during the first operation phase with TCV are presented in Karpushov et al. (2016) [3]. The stages went through from the installation of the main auxiliaries (HVPS, RF PS, cooling circuits, cryogenics equipment etc.) up to the final acceptance tests on the plasma targets will be detailed. The measurements and the associated protection interlocks acting on the TCV control system will be described, including also the human safety rules imposed to comply with a safe operation of the injector. To conclude, the next stage to finalize the integration of the NBH on TCV will be briefly developed.