TJ-II:Neutral Beam Injection

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TJ-II disposes of two neutral beam injectors (NBI), each of which can produce ≤ 300 ms pulses of neutral hydrogen accelerated to 40 keV, to provide up to 1.2 MW of absorbed additional heating for central electron densities up to 1.6×1020 m-3. [1] [2] [3]

NBI1 is located in sector D8. NBI2 is located in sector C1.

TJ-II vacuum vessel and the two NBI injectors. Left: NBI1; right: NBI2
Diagram of an NBI injector, coupled to TJ-II

Power supply

The two high voltage power supplies feeding the acceleration grids of the injectors are of the transformer–rectifier type, taking their primary energy from a pulsed flywheel generator, and are coupled to the acceleration grids through a switching device. [4]

Control system

The NBI system has its own control system, based on VMEbus, with controller boards running the OS9 real-time operating system. [5] [6]

Vacuum system

In order to keep reionization losses at an acceptable level, the maximum allowed pressure during the beam pulse is 10−4 mbar, which requires an installed pumping speed of 350,000 l/s. Titanium getter pumps have been chosen as the primary vacuum system for these injectors. Base pressures in the range of 5 × 10−9 mbar are attainable with titanium pump operation. [7]

Calorimeter

The target calorimeter (red) in its operating position. Only part of the vacuum vessel is shown. The neutral beam is injected from the right. The infrared (IR) camera (below) views the calorimeter via a mirror

A carbon fiber composite (CFC) target calorimeter has been installed to study the power density distribution of the neutral beams in situ. The thermographic print of the beam can be recorded using an infrared camera, permitting a reliable analysis due to the highly anisotropic thermal conductivity of the target material. Direct conversion from temperature to power density is possible due to independent thermocouple measurements on two adiabatically mounted copper buttons. With the combined thermographic and calorimetric measurements it has been possible to determine the power density distribution of the beams. [8] [9]

References