W. L. Gardner

Quasi-steady-state multimegawatt ion source for neutral beam injection

A quasi‐steady‐state (pulse duration of 30 s) ion source of the duoPIGatron type has been developed for fusion applications. It was designed to deliver an 80‐keV hydrogen ion beam of low beamlet divergence (Θrms= 0.26°) at a current density of 0.19 A cm−2. Hydrogen ion beams of 40 to 48 A were extracted at beam energies of 77 to 80 keV for 30‐s‐long pulses. The reliability and stability of the ion source operation were demonstrated by extracting about 600 beam pulses at full power and full pulse length. The ion source was also operated with deuterium as the working gas, and the optimum current at 80 keV was found to be about 33 A, in agreement with the expected inverse square‐root scaling of current density with atomic mass.

Properties of an intense 40-kV neutral beam injector.

The properties of an intense neutral beam injector, the modified duoPIGatron ion source, are discussed and compared with other injectors. For this source (a) beam composition for hydrogen is approximately (85+/-5) % monatomic, (b) nucleon gas efficiency is 50%, (c) the electrical efficiency of ion generation is 1.1 A/kW, and (d) up to 52% of the input power is delivered in the ion and neutral beam to a target subtending a half angle of 1.8 degrees x1.4 degrees .

Properties of an intense 50‐kV neutral‐beam injection system

The properties of an intense 50‐kV neutral‐beam system are discussed. The salient features of this system are a transmission efficiency of 76% of the extracted ion beam through a 30×34 cm aperture that is 4.5 m from the ion source, a transmitted neutral power of 1.8 MW H0 (2.0 MW D0) at extraction parameters of 50 kV/100 A/0.1 s (53 kV/85 A/0.1 s), a proton fraction of ∼80%, an ion‐source arc efficiency of ∼1.3 A/kW, an ion‐source gas efficiency of ∼35%, and a reliability of ≳90%.

Power transmission characteristics of a two‐stage multiaperture neutral beam source

Beam power transmission and grid loading characteristics of a two‐stage neutral beam source are presented. The dependence of power deposition on the target, the grids, and the gas cell was studied over a wide range of extraction perveance values with the accel‐to‐extraction gap field ratio as the other parameter. The results show that the power transmission improves remarkably with increasing field ratio. For sufficiently large field ratios (≈2.5), more than 80% of the input IV power was collected on a target located 4 m downstream and subtending 2 ° half angle to the source. The sum of the grid loading is approximately double that of single‐stage accelerators; the plasma grid loading is the highest, followed by ground grid, accel grid, and extraction grid in that order.

Positive-ion recovery scheme based on magnetic blocking of electrons

A method is described for making positive‐ion‐based neutral‐beam injection viable at energies of ≲100 keV per nucleon by recovering the energy of residual charged particles as electrical energy. The concept of transverse magnetic field blocking of electrons has been shown to be successful, and preliminary experimental results are presented.

Ion beamlet steering by aperture displacement for a tetrode accelerating structure

Steering of a single beamlet of ions in a tetrode accelerating structure as a function of both aperture displacement and the ratio of acceleration to extraction voltage (Gamma) has been measured, and the results are compared to the steering predicted by a modified linear theory. Although the data contain the predicted features of (1) null steering for a particular value of Gamma and (2) a directional change in steering through this point, the steering was also observed to be nonlinear in nature. A conjecture as to the cause of this nonlinearity is given, and the implications of these findings to beamlet steering in a multibeamlet source are discussed.

Ion optics improvements to a multiple aperture ion source

Experimental comparison is made of four plasma grids, each with a specific aperture geometry, in an attempt to improve the ion optics of a multiple aperture ion source. It is clearly shown that a simple notch geometry outperforms the other candidates with a high transmission efficiency (∼68%) to a 2° target at high perveance (∼9.6 μperv).

Experimental study of ion beam optics in a two‐stage accelerator

Hydrogen ion beam optics in a two-stage linear acceleration system is studied by examining the beam divergence as a function of the voltage and gap distribution, the beam perveance, the background gas pressure, the aspect ratio, and the total accelerating energy (60-110 keV). The system consists of four electrodes with single, cylindrical, straight-bore apertures acting as an extraction-accel-decel column. An optimum relation between the field ratio and the extraction perveance is obtained from measurements for the minimum beam divergence condition. The HWHM divergence angle is <0.3 degrees under optimum conditions. Qualitative agreement between the measurements and a previous theoretical study is noticed. A potential application of the results to high energy neutral beam injectors for fusion research is also discussed.

Spectral shaping and phase control of a fast‐wave current drive antenna array*

The requirements for antenna design and phase control circuitry for a fast-wave current drive (FWCD) array operating in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies are considered. The design of a phase control system that can operate at arbitrary phasing over a wide range of plasma-loading and strap-coupling values is presented for a four-loop antenna array, prototypical of an array planned for the DIII-D tokamak (General Atomics, San Diego, California). The goal is to maximize the power launched with the proper polarization for current drive while maintaining external control of phase. Since it is desirable to demonstrate the feasibility of FWCD prior to ITER, a four-strap array has been designed for DIII-D to operate with the existing 2-MW transmitter at 60 MHz. 3 refs., 6 figs.

Demonstration of Direct Energy Recovery of Full Energy Ions at 40 keV on a PLT/ISX Beam System

The injection of neutral hydrogen or deuterium particles continues to be the most promising means of heating magnetically confined fusion plasmas to ignition temperatures. Neutral beam injection systems that employ positive ion sources presently operate at energies of about 40-50 keV/nucleon at 60 A [Princeton Large Torus (PLT)] or 100 A [Princeton Divertor Experiment (PDX) or the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Impurities Study Experiment (ISX)] with about 60% conversion efficiency. However, the desire for multisecond beams in the 80-keV/nucleon energy range at ~ 10 MW/module has emphasized the need for technological advances in several areas. At such beam energies, as much as 75% of the initial beam energy is retained in the unneutralized ion components. As a result, two questions immediately come to mind: (1) how can one dispose of this energy; or better still, (2) how can one efficiently recover this energy? The conventional way of treating such a problem is to deflect the ions out of the neutral beam and onto water-cooled plates or beam dumps. This method has worked satisfactorily for 40-keV/nucleon beams in excess of 1.5 MW and ~0.5 s. However, the power per unit area to be disposed of in the high power, multisecond beams mentioned above is beyond present-day technology.