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To realize stable negative ion beams for 100 s required in the neutral beam injector of JT-60SA, a physical model to control cesium (Cs) distribution inside the negative ion source has been developed in order to maintain the stable negative ion production at the plasma grid (PG) surface with Cs. In this work, to quantitatively evaluate Cs coverage on the PG, a three-dimensional Cs transportation code was introduced to consider the spatial Cs distribution in the source. The spatial temperature distribution of the chamber wall was also introduced in this model. As a result, the reasonable variation of the Cs coverage for 100 s was obtained, compared to that in the initial model. Based on the modified model, the operational temperature of the chamber wall was proposed to be less than 60 °C to suppress the desorption of Cs in the chamber wall and to sustain the stable negative ion production. In addition, it was also suggested that a slightly higher wall temperature before the operation leads to a decrease in the amount of Cs stored at the chamber wall, resulting in suppression of Cs consumption in the ion source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long pulse acceleration of hydrogen negative ion beams with the power density over 70 MW/m2 and the pulse length over 100 s has been demonstrated for the first time by using a multi-aperture 3-stage accelerator. Such long pulse acceleration was achieved by integrating the design of beam optics and voltage holding capability to meet the requirements of JT-60SA. By using the newly designed accelerator for JT-60SA, voltage holding at 500 kV with beam acceleration was stably sustained even after 5 g of cesium was seeded, and heat load on each acceleration grid was reduced below the allowable level for long pulse, less than 5% of total acceleration power. As a result, 500 keV, 154 A/m2 for 118 s beam acceleration was achieved, which satisfies the requirement of the negative ion source for JT-60SA. This pulse length of such high-power density beams is longest in the world. In addition, the result contributes to the long pulse acceleration of multi-stage electrostatic accelerators, such as 1 MeV negative ion accelerator for ITER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize negative ion sources and accelerators to be applicable to International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and JT-60 Super Advanced, a large cesium (Cs)-seeded negative ion source and a multi-aperture and multi-stage electric acceleration have been developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). Long pulse production and acceleration of the negative ion beams have been independently carried out. The long pulse production of the high current beams has achieved 100 s at the beam current of 15 A by modifying the JT-60 negative ion source. The pulse duration time is increased three times longer than that before the modification. As for the acceleration, a pulse duration time has been also extended two orders of magnitudes from 0.4 s to 60 s. The developments of the negative ion source and acceleration at JAEA are well in progress towards the realization of the negative ion sources and accelerators for fusion applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the physics of the cesium (Cs) recycling in the large Cs-seeded negative ion sources relevant to ITER and JT-60SA with ion extraction area of 45-60 cm × 110-120 cm, the time evolution of the negative ion profile was precisely measured in JT-60SA where the ion extraction area is longitudinally segmented into 5. The Cs was seeded from the oven at 180 °C to the ion source. After 1 g of Cs input, surface production of the negative ions appeared only in the central segment where a Cs nozzle was located. Up to 2 g of Cs, the negative ion profile was longitudinally expanded over full ion extraction area. The measured time evolution of the negative ion profile has the similar tendency of distribution of the Cs atoms that is calculated. From the results, it is suggested that Cs atom distribution is correlated with the formation of the negative ion profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long pulse beam extraction with a current density of 120 A/m² for 100 s has been achieved with a newly developed plasma grid (PG) for the JT-60SA negative ion source which is designed to produce high power and long pulse beams with a negative ion current of 130 A/m² (22 A) and a pulse length of 100 s. The PG temperature is regulated by fluorinated fluids in order to keep the high PG temperature for the cesium-seeded negative ion production. The time constant for temperature controllability of the PG was measured to be below 10 s, which was mainly determined by the heat transfer coefficient of the fluorinated fluid. The measured decay time of the negative ion current extracted from the actively temperature-controlled PG was 430 s which was sufficient for the JT-60SA requirement, and much longer than that by inertial-cooling PG of 60 s. Obtained results of the long pulse capability are utilized to design the full size PG for the JT-60SA negative ion source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The velocity spectra of the negative-ion-(H-) based neutral beams are studied in high-performance large-area ion sources during injection into large helical device fusion plasmas. We are conducting systematic observations in standard neutral beam injection to correlate beam spectra with source operating conditions. Almost all of the transmitted beam power was at full acceleration energy (∼170 keV). The small stripping beam component which was produced in the extraction gap was evaluated to be about 9%–22% by amplitude of the measured spectra for the sources in beam lines 1 and 2. H- production uniformity from the spectrum profile was 86%–90% for three sources. For the longest pulse injection during 74 and 128 s, a full energy component tended to decrease with time, while the accelerator gap stripping tail tended to increase slightly with time, which is attributed to beam-induced outgassing in the accelerator. A higher conductance multislot ground grid accelerator appeared to show little growth in the accelerator gap beam stripping during long pulses compared to the conventional multiaperture ground grid. The beam uniformity appeared to vary in part with the Cs uniformity on the plasma grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the negative ion based neutral beam injector (N-NBI) for JT-60U, an extension of the pulse duration up to 30s has been intended to study quasi-steady state plasmas, where the NBI pulse duration is significantly longer than the plasma current diffusion time. Achieving long pulse injection requires a reduction of the heat load on the grids of the ion source. The ion source was modified to reduce the pressure within the grid structure by increasing the vacuum conductance of the acceleration grids. The acceleration efficiency was improved from 0.74 to 0.79. The heat load of the grounded grid, which was the main heat load of the acceleration grids, decreased from 9.2 to 7.0% at a constant arc chamber pressure of 0.3Pa. These improvements seemed to be caused by the reduction of beam ion stripping loss. Up to now, a long pulse injection of 17s at the power of 1.6MW with beam energy of 366keV was obtained by using one ion source. The temperature rise of the cooling water from the grounded grid saturated at less than 35°C during operation, so the heat load of the grid is significantly reduced for steady state operation at this power level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Focuses on a negative ion based neutral beam injection for JT-60. Components of extractor of negative ions; Optimization of operation parameters of the ion source; Heat loads measured in the ion source and beamline; Difference between hydrogen and deuterium beams; Power flow diagram.

High power and long-pulse negative ion extractor, which is composed of the plasma grid (PG) and the extraction grid (EXG), is newly developed toward the neutral beam injector for heating and current drive of future fusion machines such as ITER, JT-60 Super Advanced and DEMO reactor. The PG is designed to enhance surface production of negative ions efficiently by applying the chamfered aperture. The efficiency of the negative ion production for the discharge power increased by a factor of 1.3 against that of the conventional PG. The EXG is also designed with the thermal analysis to upgrade the cooling capability for the long pulse operation of >1000 s required in ITER. Though the magnetic field for electron suppression is reduced to 0.75 of that in the conventional EXG due to this upgrade, it was experimentally confirmed that the extracted electron current can be suppressed to the allowable level for the long pulse operation. These results show that newly developed extractor has the high potential for the long pulse extraction of the negative ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize neutral beam systems in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor whose target is to produce a 1 MeV, 200 A/m² during 3600 s D- ion beam, the electrostatic five-stages negative ion accelerator so-called "MeV accelerator" has been developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency. To extend pulse length, heat load of the acceleration grids was reduced by controlling the ion beam trajectory. Namely, the beam deflection due to the residual magnetic field of filter magnet was suppressed with the newly developed extractor with a 0.5 mm off-set aperture displacement. The new extractor improved the deflection angle from 6 mrad to 1 mrad, resulting in the reduction of direct interception of negative ions from 23% to 15% of the total acceleration power, respectively. As a result, the pulse length of 130 A/m², 881 keV H- ion beam has been successfully extended from a previous value of 0.4 s to 8.7 s. This is the first long pulse negative ion beam acceleration over 100 MW/m². [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatially non-uniform electron energy distribution function (EEDF) in an arc driven negative ion source (JAEA 10A negative ion source: 10 A NIS) is calculated numerically by a three-dimensional Monte Carlo kinetic model for electrons to understand spatial distribution of plasma production (such as atomic and ionic hydrogen (H0/H+) production) in source chamber. The local EEDFs were directly calculated from electron orbits including electromagnetic effects and elastic/inelastic collision forces. From the EEDF, spatial distributions of H0/H+ production rate were obtained. The results suggest that spatial non-uniformity of H0/H+ productions is enhanced by high energy component of EEDF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat load on acceleration grids by secondary particles such as electrons, neutrals, and positive ions, is a key issue for long pulse acceleration of negative ion beams. Complicated behaviors of the secondary particles in multiaperture, multigrid (MAMuG) accelerator have been analyzed using electrostatic accelerator Monte Carlo code. The analytical result is compared to experimental one obtained in a long pulse operation of a MeV accelerator, of which second acceleration grid (A2G) was removed for simplification of structure. The analytical results show that relatively high heat load on the third acceleration grid (A3G) since stripped electrons were deposited mainly on A3G. This heat load on the A3G can be suppressed by installing the A2G. Thus, capability of MAMuG accelerator is demonstrated for suppression of heat load due to secondary particles by the intermediate grids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the JT-60U negative-ion-based neutral beam injection system, the effect of negative ion and electron deflection by the plasma grid (PG) magnetic filter was studied. After a long-pulse operation of up to 19 s, a local melting was observed on the beamline near the ion source, facing the electron drift side of the PG magnetic field. It is confirmed that the experimental deflection of the negative-ion beam agrees well with the three-dimensional beam simulation result by taking account of the measured magnetic field. By using the code, it is found that some stripped electrons produced in the first acceleration gap pass through the down pitch of the multiple apertures in the next stage of acceleration grids, and then collide on the beamline around the melted location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce the tritium inventory in a fuel circulation system in fusion plants, a possibility of deuterium-tritium (DT) mixed neutral beam injectors with DT negative ion beams has been investigated by analyzing the beam optics of the DT-mixed negative ion beams for the first time. In a two-dimensional beam analysis, DT-mixed ion beams could be accelerated regardless of the DT current mixing ratio (T/D) from the identical acceleration geometry with the identical applied voltages by adjusting total space charge for the D and T components. However, in a three-dimensional beam analysis including magnetic fields, the DT-mixed ion beams were separated due to a mass dependence of the beam deflection by orthogonal magnetic fields of an electron suppression and transverse filter fields for negative ion production. In the case of the beamline for ITER, which requires beam deflection angle within ±1 mrad, the operational range for the DT-mixed ion beams was found to be the DT current mixing ratio of 0.7-1.5 and beam energy of 0.9-1.0 MeV. Although the operational range was not wide, the DT-mixed beam was found to be feasible in terms of the beam acceleration. These analyses also contribute to the study of the acceleration of other mixed ion beams such as impurity or heavy ions, which are useful techniques for diagnostic beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: IRFM (CEA Cadarache) and JAEA Naka have entered into a collaboration in order to test a Single Gap, Single Aperture (SINGAP) [H.P.L. de Esch, R.S. Hemsworth, P. Massmann, Updated physics design ITER-SINGAP accelerator, Fusion Eng. Des. 73 (2005) 329.] accelerator at the JAEA Megavolt Test Facility (MTF) at Naka, Japan. Whereas at the CEA testbed the acceleration current was limited to 0.1A, at JAEA 0.5A is available. This allows the acceleration of 15 H− beamlets in SINGAP to be tested and a direct comparison between SINGAP and Multi Aperture, Multi Grid (MAMuG) [M. Taniguchi, T. Inoue, N. Umeda, M. Kashiwagi, K. Watanabe, H. Tobari, M. Dairaku, K. Sakamoto, Acceleration of ampere class H− ion beam by MeV accelerator, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79 (2008) 02C110.] to be made. High voltage conditioning in the SINGAP configuration has been quite slow, with 581kV in vacuum achieved after 140h of conditioning. With 0.25Pa of H2 gas present in the accelerator 787kV could be achieved. The conditioning curve for MAMuG is 200kV higher. SINGAP beam optics appears in agreement with calculation results. A beamlet divergence better than 5mrad was obtained. SINGAP accelerates electrons to a higher energy than MAMuG. Measurements of the power intercepted on one of the electron dumps have been compared with EAMCC code [G. Fubiani, H.P.L. de Esch, A. Simonin, R.S. Hemsworth, Modeling of secondary emission processes in the negative ion based electrostatic accelerator of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 11 (2008) 014202.] calculations. Based on the experiments described here, electron production by a SINGAP accelerator scaled up to ITER size was estimated to be too high for comfort. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]