Status of the JET high frequency pellet injector

Abstract

A new high frequency pellet injector, part of the JET programme in support of ITER, has been installed on JET at the end of 2007. Its main objective is the mitigation of the Edge Localized Modes (ELMs), responsible for unacceptable thermal loads on the wall when their amplitude is too high. The injector was also required to have the capability to inject pellets for plasma fuelling. To reach this double goal, the injector has to be capable to produce and accelerate either small pellets to trigger ELMs (pace making), allowing to control their frequency and thus their amplitude, or large pellets to fuel the plasma. Operational since the beginning of the 2009 JET experimental campaign, the injector, based on the screw extruder technology, suffered from a general degradation of its performance linked to extrusion instability. After modifications of the nozzle assembly, re-commissioning on plasma has been undertaken during the first half of 2012 and successful pellet ELM pacing was achieved, rising the intrinsic ELM frequency up to 4.5 times.