Hu Chundong

Conceptual Design of Neutral Beam Injection System for EAST

Neutral beam injection (NBI) system with two neutral beam injections will be constructed on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in two stages for high power auxiliary plasmas heating and non-inductive current drive. Each NBI can deliver 2~4 MW beam power with 50~80 keV beam energy in 10~100 s pulse length. Each elements of the NBI system are presented in this contribution.

Preliminary Results of Ion Beam Extraction Tests on EAST Neutral Beam Injector

The neutral beam injection (NBI) system is one of the most important auxiliary plasma heating and current driving methods for fusion device. A high power ion beam of 3 MW with 80 keV beam energy in 0.5 s beam duration and a long pulse ion beam of 4 s with 50 keV beam energy ion beam extraction were achieved on the EAST neutral beam injector on the test-stand. The preliminary results show that the EAST-NBI system was developed successfully on schedule.

Achievement of 100 s Long Pulse Neutral Beam Extraction in EAST Neutral Beam Injector

Neutral beam injection (NBI) is recognized as one of the most effective means for plasma heating. A 100 s long pulse neutral beam with 30 keV beam energy, 10 A beam current and a 100 s long pulse modulating neutral beam with 50 keV beam energy, 16 A beam current were achieved in the EAST neutral beam injector on the test-stand. The preliminary results suggest that EAST-NBI system initially possess the ability of long pulse beam extraction.

First Achievement of Plasma Heating for EAST Neutral Beam Injector

As one of the most effective methods for plasma heating, a neutral beam injector (NBI) achieved plasma heating and current driving for the first time in EAST 2014 experimental campaign. According to the research plan of the EAST physics experiment, the first NBI (EAST-NBI-1) has been built and become operational in 2014. In this article, the latest experiment results of EAST-NBI-1 are reported as follows: (1) EAST achieves H-mode plasma in the case of NBI heating alone, (2) EAST achieves 22 s long pulse stable H-mode plasma in the case of simultaneous NBI and lower hybrid wave (LHW) heating. The measurement data show that the loop voltage decreased and the plasma stored energy increased obviously. The results indicate that EAST-NBI-1 has achieved plasma heating and current driving, and thus lays a foundation for the construction of EAST-NBI-2, which will be built in a few months this year.

Charge Exchange Recombination Spectroscopy Based on Diagnostic Neutral Beam in HT-7 Tokamak

Charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) based on a diagnostic neutral beam (DNB) installed in the HT-7 tokamak is introduced. DNB can provide a 6 A extracted current at 50 kV for 0.1 s in hydrogen. It can penetrate into the core plasma in HT-7. The CXRS system is designed to observe charge exchange (CX) transitions in the visible spectrum. CX light from the beam is focused onto 10 optical fibers, which view the plasma from −5 cm to 20 cm. The CXRS system can measure the ion temperature as low as 0.1 keV. With CXRS, the local ion temperature profile in HT-7 was obtained for the first time.

Simulation on Heating and Current Drive Using Neutral Beam Injection with Variable Injection Angle on EAST

The heating and current drive using NBI (neutral beam injection) with a variable injection angle (the angle between the axis of the NBI system with the center axis of the injection window) on EAST is simulated by using NBEAMS code. The influence of the injection angle on the neutral beam current drive, heating efficiency and beam shinethrough power is discussed to explore the optimum injection angle for the EAST NBI system. According to the simulation, an injection angle of 19.5° is the optimum for EAST with its typical experimental parameters. With this injection angle, the increase in both the beam energy and power can improve the current drive and heating efficiency. The problem that the beam shinethrough power increases with the higher injection energy and power could be controlled through an increase of the plasma density.

Data Processing Middleware in a High-Powered Neutral Beam Injection Control System

A set of data-processing middleware for a high-powered neutral beam injection (NBI) control system is presented in this paper. The middleware, based on TCP/IP and multi-threading technologies, focuses mainly on data processing and transmission. It separates the data processing and compression from data acquisition and storage. It provides universal transmitting interfaces for different software circumstances, such as WinCC, LabView and other measurement systems. The experimental data acquired on Windows, QNX and Linux platforms are processed by the middleware and sent to the monitoring applications. There are three middleware deployment models: serial processing, parallel processing and alternate serial processing. By using these models, the middleware solves real-time data-processing problems on heterogeneous environmental acquisition hardware with different operating systems and data applications.

Modeling process of the neutral beam re-ionization loss

The basic process of re-ionization loss was studied. In the drift duct there are three processes leading to re-ionization loss: the collision of neutral beam particles with the molecules of background gas, similar collisions with released molecules from the inner wall of the drift duct and the ferret-collisions among particles with different energy of the neutral beam. Mathematical models have been developed and taking EAST-NBI parameters as an example, the re-ionization loss was obtained within these models. The result indicated that in the early stage of the neutral beam injector operation the released gas was quite abundant. The amount of re-ionization loss owing to the released gas can be as high as 60%. In the case of a long-time operation of the neutral beam injector, the total re-ionization loss decreases from 13.7% to 5.7%. Then the reionization loss originating mainly from the collisions between particles of the neutral beam and the background molecules is dominant, covering about 92% of the total re-ionization loss. The drift duct pressure was the decisive factor for neutral beam re-ionization loss.

Predictive Calculation of Neutral Beam Heating Plasmas in EAST Tokamak by NUBEAM Code for Certain Parameter Ranges

A predictive calculation is carried out for neutral beam heating of fusion plasmas in EAST by using NUBEAM code under certain plasma conditions. Results calculated are analyzed for different plasma parameters. Relations between major plasma parameters, such as density and temperature, are obtained and key physical processes in the neutral beam heating, including beam power deposition, trapped fraction, heating efficiency, and power loss, are simulated. Other physical processes, such as current-drive, toroidal rotation and neutron emission, are also discussed.

The Power Supply System of Ion Source for NBI

The power supply system of ion source for the Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) in the HT-7 superconducting tokamak is based on a single injector with one ion source that can deliver 700 kW of neutral beam power. Experiments and a discharges test on the ion source were successfully performed. In this paper, the circuit structures and features of every power supply are described and the results of the discharges test are presented.