Tae-Seong Kim

Long pulse beam extraction with a prototype ion source for the KSTAR neutral beam systema)

Long pulse operational characteristics of the high current ion source for the KSTAR neutral beam system are described. The beam pulse length of 300 s was successfully operated at a beam power of 1.6 MW with a beam energy of 70 keV. Beam energy, beam current, beam divergence, arc power, and several other operational parameters were measured during a pulse to analyze the long pulse properties. The increase of the cooling water temperature of the accelerator grids and plasma generator components were measured by water flow calorimetric system using thermocouples. The temperature rises of the filament electrodes of the ion source and the G1 grids (plasma grids) of the accelerator turned out to be the critical factors of the long pulse operation in the current system.

Results of Beam Extraction Performance for the KSTAR Neutral Beam Injector

The first neutral beam injector (NBI-1) has been developed for the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) tokamak. The first long pulse ion source (LPIS-1) has been installed on the NBI-1 for an auxiliary heating and current drive of KSTAR plasmas. The performance of ion and neutral beam extractions in the LPIS-1 was investigated initially on the KSTAR NBI-1 system, prior to the neutral beam injection into the main plasmas. The ion source consists of a magnetic bucket plasma generator with multipole cusp fields and a set of prototype tetrode accelerators with circular apertures. The inner volume of the plasma generator and accelerator column in the LPIS-1 is approximately 123 L. Design requirements for the ion source were a 120 kV/65 A deuterium beam and a 300 s pulse length. The extraction of ion beams was initiated by the formation of arc plasmas in the LPIS-1, called the arc-beam extraction method. A stable ion beam extraction of the LPIS-1 was achieved up to 85 kV/32 A for a 5 s pulse length and 80 kV/25 A for a 14 s pulse length. An optimum beam perveance of 1.15 µperv was observed at an acceleration voltage of 60 kV. Neutralization efficiency was measured by a water-flow calorimetry (WFC) method using a calorimeter and the operation of a bending magnet. The full-energy species of ion beams were detected by using the diagnostic method of optical multichannel analyzer (OMA). An arc efficiency of the LPIS was 0.6–1.1 A/kW depending on the operating conditions of arc discharge. A neutral beam power of ~1.0 MW must be sufficiently injected into the KSTAR plasmas from the LPIS-1 at a beam energy of 80 keV.

New ion source for KSTAR neutral beam injection system

The neutral beam injection system (NBI-1) of the KSTAR tokamak can accommodate three ion sources; however, it is currently equipped with only one prototype ion source. In the 2010 and 2011 KSTAR campaigns, this ion source supplied deuterium neutral beam power of 0.7-1.6 MW to the KSTAR plasma with a beam energy of 70-100 keV. A new ion source will be prepared for the 2012 KSTAR campaign with a much advanced performance compared with the previous one. The newly designed ion source has a very large transparency (∼56%) without deteriorating the beam optics, which is designed to deliver a 2 MW injection power of deuterium beams at 100 keV. The plasma generator of the ion source is of a horizontally cusped bucket type, and the whole inner wall, except the cathode filaments and plasma grid side, functions as an anode. The accelerator assembly consists of four multi-circular aperture grids made of copper and four electrode flanges made of aluminum alloy. The electrodes are insulated using PEEK. The ion source will be completed and tested in 2011.

Study on an azimuthal line cusp ion source for the KSTAR neutral beam injector

In this study it is found that the cusp magnetic field configuration of an anode bucket influences the primary electron behavior. An electron orbit code (ELEORBIT code) showed that an azimuthal line cusp (cusp lines run azimuthally with respect to the beam extraction direction) provides a longer primary electron confinement time than an axial line cusp configuration. Experimentally higher plasma densities were obtained under the same arc power when the azimuthal cusp chamber was used. The newly designed azimuthal cusp bucket has been investigated in an effort to increase the plasma density in its plasma generator per arc power.

Numerical simulation for the accelerator of the KSTAR neutral beam ion source.

Recent experiments with a prototype long-pulse, high-current ion source being developed for the neutral beam injection system of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research have shown that the accelerator grid assembly needs a further upgrade to achieve the final goal of 120keV/65A for the deuterium ion beam. The accelerator upgrade concept was determined theoretically by simulations using the IGUN code. The simulation study was focused on finding parameter sets that raise the optimum perveance as large as possible and reduce the beam divergence as low as possible. From the simulation results, it was concluded that it is possible to achieve this goal by sliming the plasma grid (G1), shortening the second gap (G2-G3), and adjusting the G2 voltage ratio.

Calculation of extracted ion beam particle distribution including within-extractor collisions from H-alpha Doppler shift measurements.

Prototype long pulse ion sources are being developed and tested toward the goal of a deuterium beam extraction of 120 keV/65 A. The latest prototype source consists of a magnetic bucket plasma generator and a four-grid copper accelerator system with multicircular apertures of 568 holes. To measure the angular divergence and the ion species of the ion beam, an optical multichannel analyzer (OMA) system for a Doppler-shifted H-alpha lights was set up at the end of a gas-cell neutralizer. But the OMA data are very difficult to analyze due to a large background level on the top of the three energy peaks (coming from H(+), H(2) (+), and H(3) (+)). These background spectra in the OMA signals seem to result from partially accelerated ion beams in the accelerator. Extracted ions could undergo a premature charge exchange as the accelerator column tends to have a high hydrogen partial pressure from the unused gas from the plasma generator, resulting in a continuous background of partially accelerated beam particles at the accelerator exit. This effect is calculated by accounting for all the possible atomic collision processes and numerically summing up three ion species across the accelerator column. The collection of all the atomic reaction cross sections and the numerical summing up will be presented. The result considerably depends on the background pressure and the ion beam species ratio (H(+), H(2) (+), and H(3) (+)). This effect constitutes more than 20% of the whole particle distribution. And the energy distribution of those suffering from collisions is broad and shows a broad maximum in the vicinity of the half and the third energy region.

Operating characteristics of a new ion source for KSTAR neutral beam injection system

A new positive ion source for the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research neutral beam injection (KSTAR NBI-1) system was designed, fabricated, and assembled in 2011. The characteristics of the arc discharge and beam extraction were investigated using hydrogen and helium gas to find the optimum operating parameters of the arc power, filament voltage, gas pressure, extracting voltage, accelerating voltage, and decelerating voltage at the neutral beam test stand at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in 2012. Based on the optimum operating condition, the new ion source was then conditioned, and performance tests were primarily finished. The accelerator system with enlarged apertures can extract a maximum 65 A ion beam with a beam energy of 100 keV. The arc efficiency and optimum beam perveance, at which the beam divergence is at a minimum, are estimated to be 1.0 A/kW and 2.5 uP, respectively. The beam extraction tests show that the design goal of delivering a 2 MW deuterium neutral beam into the KSTAR Tokamak plasma is achievable.

Assessment and modification of an ion source grid design in KSTAR neutral beam systema)

A new 2 MW NB (Neutral Beam) ion source for supplying 3.5 MW NB heating for the KSTAR campaign was developed in 2012 and its grid was made from OFHC (Oxygen Free High Conductivity) copper with rectangular cooling channels. However, the plastic deformation such as a bulging in the plasma grid of the ion source was found during the overhaul period after the 2012 campaign. A thermal-hydraulic and a thermo-mechanical analysis using the conventional code, ANSYS, were carried out and the thermal fatigue life assessment was evaluated. It was found that the thermal fatigue life of the OFHC copper grid was about 335 cycles in case of 0.165 MW/m(2) heat flux and it gave too short fatigue life to be used as a KSTAR NB ion source grid. To overcome the limited fatigue life of the current design, the following methods were proposed in the present study: (1) changing the OHFC copper to CuCrZr, copper-alloy or (2) adopting a new design with a pure Mo metal grid and CuCrZr tubes. It is confirmed that the proposed methods meet the requirements by performing the same assessment.

Discharge Characteristics of Large-Area High-Power RF Ion Source for Positive and Negative Neutral Beam Injectors ⁄

A large-area high-power radio-frequency (RF) driven ion source was developed for positive and negative neutral beam injectors at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). The RF ion source consists of a driver region, including a helical antenna and a discharge chamber, and an expansion region. RF power can be transferred at up to 10 kW with a fixed frequency of 2 MHz through an optimized RF matching system. An actively water-cooled Faraday shield is located inside the driver region of the ion source for the stable and steady-state operations of high-power RF discharge. Plasma ignition of the ion source is initiated by the injection of argon-gas without a starter-filament heating, and the argon-gas is then slowly exchanged by the injection of hydrogen-gas to produce pure hydrogen plasmas. The uniformities of the plasma parameter, such as a plasma density and an electron temperature, are measured at the lowest area of the driver region using two RF-compensated electrostatic probes along the direction of the short-and long-dimensions of the driver region. The plasma parameters will be compared with those obtained at the lowest area of the expansion bucket to analyze the plasma expansion properties from the driver region to the expansion region.

Performance of a New Ion Source for KSTAR Tokamak Plasma Heating

In the experimental campaign of 2010 and 2011 on KSTAR, the NBI-1 system was equipped with one prototype ion source and operated successfully, providing a neutral beam power of 0.7–1.6 MW to the tokamak plasma. The new ion source planned for the 2012 KSTAR campaign had a much more advanced performance compared with the previous one. The target performance of the new ion source was to provide a neutral deuterium beam of 2 MW to the tokamak plasma. The ion source was newly designed, fabricated, and assembled in 2011. The new ion source was then conditioned up to 64 A/100 keV over a 2-hour beam extraction and performance tested at the NB test stand (NBTS) at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in 2012. The measured optimum perveance at which the beam divergence is a minimum was about 2.5 μP, and the minimum beam divergent angle was under 1.0° at 60 keV. These results indicate that the 2.0 MW neutral beam power at 100 keV required for the heating of plasma in KSTAR can be delivered by the installation of the new ion source in the KSTAR NBI-1 system.