Alberto Coletti

Final Design of the Quench Protection Circuits for the JT-60SA Superconducting Magnets

This paper describes the detailed design of the Quench Protection Circuits (QPC) for the superconducting Toroidal Field (TF) and Poloidal Field (PF) magnets of the Satellite Tokamak JT-60SA, which will be installed in Naka, Japan [1]. The nominal currents to be interrupted and the maximum reapplied voltages are 25.7 kA and 2.8 kV for the TF QPCs and 20 kA and 5 kV for PF QPCs. The innovative solution proposed in the QPC design is based on a Hybrid Circuit Breaker (CB) composed of a mechanical Bypass Switch for conducting the continuous current, in parallel to a static CB for current interruption. The main choices of the final design are presented and discussed, either to confirm or to update and complete the study performed at the conceptual design level.

Advancement on the procurement of Power Supply systems for JT-60SA

JT-60SA will be provided with a set of power supply systems procured by Europe and Japan under the framework of Broader Approach Agreement. The toroidal circuit is supplied by an ac/dc thyristors converter rated for 25.7 kA in steady state, and the toroidal superconducting coils are protected by three Quench Protection Circuits (QPC) assuring fast dissipation of the stored magnetic energy of about 1 GJ in case of fault. The poloidal circuits are supplied by ten ac/dc thyristor converters, almost all rated for ±20 kA and ±1 kV; ten QPC rated for the same nominal current and ±3.8 kV assure the protection of the poloidal superconducting coils. The high voltage required for the plasma breakdown is generated in the poloidal circuits by four Booster ac/dc converters and by six Switching Network Units (SNU). The Booster converters are rated +4/-14.5 kA and ±5 kV for short time, thus are inserted in the circuits only when needed and then bypassed. The SNU are operated in order to insert in the circuits settable resistors, producing up to 5 kV at the nominal current of 20 kA, and then to by-pass them after plasma initiation phase. Two in-vessel coils for fast control of plasma position are supplied by two independent ac/dc thyristor converters, rated ±5 kA and ±1 kV, and the in-vessel coils for Resistive Wall Mode control are supplied by 18 fast inverters rated for 300 A and 240 V. After a preliminary definition of the reference schemes and main requirements of the components, the procurement of the Power Supply systems has been started by means of contracts awarded to industrial suppliers including detailed design, manufacturing and test. Besides highlighting the main characteristics of Power Supply systems of JT-60SA as resulting after the detailed design, the paper describes the present status of their procurement: the QPC units have been already installed in Japan for the final acceptance test; the manufacture and factory tests of some SNU have been successfully completed; the detailed design of ac/dc converters for toroidal and poloidal circuits has been finalized, and the first units have been manufactured and are ready for factory testing.

Detailed Analysis of the Transient Voltage in a JT-60SA PF Coil Circuit

A superconducting coil system is actually complicated by the distributed parameters, e.g. the distributed mutual inductance among turns and the distributed capacitance between adjacent conductors. In this paper, such a complicated system was modeled with a reasonably simplified circuit network with lumped parameters. Then, a detailed circuit analysis was conducted to evaluate the possible voltage transient in the coil circuit. As a result, an appropriate (minimum) snubber capacitance for the Switching Network Unit, which is a fast high voltage generation circuit in JT-60SA, was obtained.

Analysis of Maximum Voltage Transient of JT-60SA Toroidal Field Coils in Case of Fast Discharge

The voltage transient appearing across and inside the toroidal field (TF) coils of JT-60SA in case of fast voltage variation, such as a safety discharge operated by the quench protection circuit (QPC), can be significantly high. In fact, the voltage distribution between coils and inside the winding can be not uniform during fast transient, being influenced by the presence of parasitic capacitances. A simplified electrical model of the TF coils has been developed to investigate this aspect. Its robustness has been proved by means of parametric sensitivity analysis, and the impact of the included simplifications has been evaluated. The obtained model has been used in conjunction with an electrical model of the TF circuit elements, including a simplified model of the QPC able to reproduce the voltage appearing across its terminals as observed during experimental operation of the QPC prototype. The worst case in terms of transient voltage applied to the winding has been identified, corresponding to a fault to ground occurring just after QPC operation. It has been verified that the resulting voltage is largely inside the coil insulation capability defined by performed insulation voltage tests.

Design and implementation of four 20 kA, 5 kV hybrid switching networks for plasma ignition in the international tokamak JT-60SA

This paper describes the design and implementation of the Switching Network Unit (SNU) for the superconducting Central Solenoid coils of the international nuclear fusion experiment JT-60SA to be built in Naka, Japan. Fusion experiments require an overvoltage in the poloidal coils inducing an overvoltage in the plasma chamber in order to produce the plasma breakdown. In the modern fusion devices, as JT-60SA, this is achieved by a SNU. The designed SNU can interrupt a DC current up to 20 kA in less than 1 ms to create a voltage up to 5 kV. It is realized with a hybrid switch integrating an electro-mechanical device and a solid state static circuit breaker, parallel connected. The SNU resistance can be prearranged and dynamically reduced by a solid state making switch to comply with the experimental requests. Preliminary test results confirmed the current balance of the multiple parallel branches constituting the solid state switch and proper behavior of the devices, confirming simulations results. The developed technical solutions may be employed in many other fields where is required a DC high current interruption, as medium and high voltage DC networks (HVDC systems).