Status of the ITER neutral beam injection system (invited)

Abstract

The ITER neutral beam injectors are the first injectors to be designed to operate under conditions and constraints similar to those that will be encountered with a fusion reactor. The injectors will use a single large ion source and accelerator that will produce 40A D− 1MeV beams for pulse lengths of up to 3600s. The accelerated ion beams will be neutralized in a gas (D2) neutralizer which is subdivided into four vertical channels to reduce the gas flow into the injectors that is needed to produce optimum target for neutralization. These injectors will have to operate in a hostile radiation environment and they will become highly radioactive due to the neutron flux from ITER. The design has been modified recently to have a rectangular vacuum vessel with a removable lid that allows vertical access to, and maintenance of, the beamline components, the incorporation of an absolute all metal valve at the exit of the injector, the choice of a rf driven ion source as the reference design of ion source, and to have a high voltage deck incorporating the various auxiliary power supplies in air rather that under high pressure SF6. A major development is that it has been agreed that a Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) will be set up at Padua, Italy. The NBTF will consist of two test beds: one of which will be capable of operating a complete injector at full performance. The second will be an ion source test bed, which will be used for the development and testing, to full performance, of the large negative ion source.