C.A. Foster

Repeating pneumatic hydrogen pellet injector for plasma fueling

A repeating pneumatic pellet injector has been developed for plasma fueling applications. The repetitive device extends pneumatic injector operation to steady state. The active mechanism consists of an extruder and a gun assembly that are cooled by flowing liquid‐helium refrigerant. The extruder provides a continuous supply of solid hydrogen to the gun assembly, where a reciprocating gun barrel forms and chambers cylindrical pellet from the extrusion; pellets are then accelerated with compressed hydrogen gas (pressures up to 125 bar) to velocities ≤1.9 km/s (1.6 km/s for deuterium pellets). The gun assembly design can accommodate different pellet sizes and barrel lengths. Steady‐state rates of 2 s−1 have been obtained with 2.1‐ , 3.4‐ , and 4.0‐mm‐diameter pellets. The present apparatus operates at higher firing rates in short bursts; for example, a rate of 6 s−1 for 2 s with the larger pellets. These pellet parameters are in the range applicable for fueling large present‐day fusion devices such as the To...

Pneumatic hydrogen pellet injection system for the ISX tokamak

We describe the design and operation of the solid hydrogen pellet injection system used in plasma refueling experiments on the ISX tokamak. The gun-type injector operates on the principle of gas dynamic acceleration of cold pellets confined laterally in a tube. The device is cooled by flowing liquid helium refrigerant, and pellets are formed in situ. Room temperature helium gas at moderate pressure is used as the propellant. The prototype device injected single hydrogen pellets into the tokamak discharge at a nominal 330 m/s. The tokamak plasma fuel content was observed to increase by (0.5-1.2) x10(19) particles subsequent to pellet injection. A simple modification to the existing design has extended the performance to 1000 m/s. At higher propellant operating pressures (28 bars), the muzzle velocity is 20% less than predicted by an idealized constant area expansion process.

A numerical model for swirl flow cooling in high-heat-flux particle beam targets and the design of a swirl-flow-based plasma limiter*

An unsteady, two-dimensional heat conduction code has been used to study the performance of swirl-flow-based neutral particle beam targets. The model includes the effects of two-phase heat transfer and asymmetric heating of tubular elements. The calorimeter installed in the Medium Energy Test Facility, which has been subjected to 30-s neutral beam pulses with incident heat flux intensities of greater than or equal to 5 kW/cm/sup 2/, has been modeled. The numerical results indicate that local heat fluxes in excess of 7 kW/cm/sup 2/ occur at the water-cooled surface on the side exposed to the beam. This exceeds critical heat flux limits for uniformly heated tubes wih straight flow by approximately a factor of 5. The design of a plasma limiter based on swirl flow heat transfer is presented.

Eight‐shot pneumatic pellet injection system for the tokamak fusion test reactor

An eight‐shot pneumatic pellet injection system has been developed for plasma fueling of the tokamak fusion test reactor (TFTR). The active cryogenic mechanisms consist of a solid hydrogen extruder and a rotating pellet wheel that are cooled by flowing liquid‐helium refrigerant. The extruder provides solid hydrogen for stepwise loading of eight holes located circumferentially around the pellet wheel. This design allows for three different pellet diameters: 3.0 mm (three pellets), 3.5 mm (three pellets), and 4.0 mm (two pellets) in the present configuration. Each of the eight pellets can be shot independently. Deuterium pellets are accelerated in 1.0‐m‐long gun barrels with compressed hydrogen gas (at pressures from 70 to 105 bar) to velocities in the range 1.0–1.5 km/s. The pellets are transported to the plasma in an injection line that incorporates two stages of guide tubes with intermediate vacuum pumping stations. A remote, stand‐alone control and data‐acquisition system is used for injector and vacuum...

Compact, inexpensive target design for steady-state heat removal in high-heat-flux fusion applications

A high‐heat‐flux target has been developed for intercepting multimegawatt, multisecond neutral beams at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Water‐cooled copper swirl tubes are used for the heat transfer medium; these tubes exhibit an enhancement in burnout heat flux over conventional axial flow tubes. The target consists of 126 swirl tubes [each 0.95 cm in outside diameter (o.d.) with 0.16‐cm‐thick walls and ≊1 m long] arranged in a V shape and inclined with respect to the beam axis. In tests with the ORNL long‐pulse ion source (13×43‐cm grid), the target has handled up to 3‐MW, 30‐s beam pulses with no deleterious effects. The peak power density was estimated at ≊15 kW/cm2 normal to the beam axis (>5 kW/cm2 maximum on tube surfaces). The water flow rate through the tubes was 0.33 l/s (5.2 gal/min) per tube (axial flow velocity=11.6 m/s) with a corresponding pressure drop of 1.14 MPa (165 psi). To date, the target has absorbed an estimated 25 000 full‐power (≊3 MW) pulses for a cumulative time of ≊100 0...

The ORNL plasma fueling program

Advanced plasma fueling systems for magnetic confinement devices are under development at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The general approach is to produce and accelerate frozen hydrogen-isotope pellets at speeds ranging from 1 to 2 km/s and higher. Recently, ORNL provided pneumatic-based pellet fueling systems for two of the worlds largest tokamak experiments, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and the Joint European Torus (JET). A new, versatile, centrifuge-type injector is being installed on the Tore Supra tokamak. Also, a new, simplified, eight-shot injector has been developed, and injectors based on this design are operating on the Princeton Beta Experiment (PBX) and the ORNL Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF). In addition to these confinement-physics-related activities, ORNL is pursuing advanced technologies to achieve pellet velocities significantly in excess of 2 km/s, and has carried out a tritium proof of principle experiment in which the fabrication and acceleration of tritium pellets were demonstrated. These ongoing activities are described.<<ETX>>

Production and Innovative Applications of Cryogenic Solid Pellets

For over two decades Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been developing cryogenic pellet injectors for fueling hot, magnetic fusion plasmas. Cryogenic solid pellets of all three hydrogen isotopes have been produced in a size range of 1- to 10-mm diameter and accelerated to speeds from <100 to {approx}3000 m/s. The pellets have been formed discretely by cryocondensation in gun barrels and also by extrusion of cryogenic solids at mass flow rates up to {approx}0.26 g/s and production rates up to ten pellets per second. The pellets traverse the hot plasma in a fraction of a millisecond and continuously ablate, providing fresh hydrogenic fuel to the interior of the plasma. From this initial application, uses of this technology have expanded to include (1) cryogenic xenon drops or solids for use as a debris-less target in a laser plasma source of X-rays for advanced lithography systems, (2) solid argon and carbon dioxide pellets for surface cleaning or decontamination, and (3) methane pellets in a liquid hydrogen bath for use as an innovative moderator of cold neutrons. Methods of production and acceleration/transport of these cryogenic solids will be described, and examples will be given of their use in prototype systems.

A 400-pellet feed system for the ORNL centrifuge pellet injector

An improved and extended pellet fabrication and feed mechanism is being developed for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) centrifuge pellet injector that is presently installed on Tore Supra. This upgrade will extend the number of pellets available for a single-plasma discharge from 100 to 400. In addition, a new pusher and delivery system is expected to improve the performance of the device. As in the original system, deuterium ice is deposited from the gas phase on a liquid-helium-cooled rotating disk, forming a rim of solid deuterium. The rim of ice is machined to a parabolic profile from which pellets are pushed. In the new device, a stack of four ice rims are formed simultaneously, thereby increasing the capacity from 100 to 400 pellets. An improved method of ice formation has also been developed that produces clear ice. The pellet pusher and delivery system utilizes a four-axis, brushless DC servo system to precisely cut and deliver the pellets from the ice rim to the entrance of the centrifuge wheel. Pellets can be formed with sizes ranging from 2.5- to 4-mm diam at a rate of up to 8 per second. The operation of the injector is fully automated by a computer control system. The design and test results of the device are reported.

Characteristics of an electron-beam rocket pellet accelerator

An electron-beam rocket pellet accelerator has been designed, built, assembled, and tested as a proof-of-principle (POP) apparatus. The main goal of accelerators based on this concept is to use intense electron-beam heating and ablation of a hydrogen propellant stick to accelerate deuterium and/or tritium pellets to ultrahigh speeds (10 to 20 km/s) for the plasma fueling of fusion devices such as the International Thermonuclear Engineering Reactor (ITER). The POP apparatus is described, and initial results of pellet-acceleration experiments are presented. Conceptual ultrahigh-speed pellet accelerators are discussed.<<ETX>>

Pellet injector development and experiments at ORNL

The development of pellet injectors for plasma fueling of magnetic confinement fusion experiments has been under way at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the past 15 years. Recently, ORNL provided a tritium-compatible four-shot pneumatic injector for the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) based on the in situ condensation technique that features three single-stage gas guns and an advanced two-stage light gas gun driver. In another application, ORNL supplied the Tore Supra tokamak with a centrifuge pellet injector in 1989 for pellet fueling experiments that has achieved record numbers of injected pellets into a discharge. Work is progressing on an upgrade to that injector to extend the number of pellets to 400 and improve pellet repeatability. In a new application, the ORNL three barrel repeating pneumatic injector has been returned from JET and is being readied for installation on the DIII-D device for fueling and enhanced plasma performance experiments. In addition to these experimental applications, ORNL is developing advanced injector technologies, including high-velocity pellet injectors, tritium pellet injectors, and long-pulse feed systems. The two-stage light gas gun and electron-beam-driven rocket are the acceleration techniques under investigation for achieving high velocity. A tritium proof-of-principle (TPOP) experiment has demonstrated the feasibility of tritium pellet production and acceleration. A new tritium-compatible, extruder-based, repeating pneumatic injector is being fabricated to replace the pipe gun in the TPOP experiment and will explore issues related to the extrudability of tritium and acceleration of large tritium pellets. The tritium pellet formation experiments and development of long-pulse pellet feed systems are especially relevant to the International Tokamak Engineering Reactor (ITER).