Ion source power supplies successfully tested in Italy
25 Jun 2014
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Hans Decamps, Neutral Beam Section
Read more about the story on the European Domestic Agency website.
A schematic of the SPIDER power supply, describing the contributions of Europe (blue) and India (yellow).The factory acceptance tests for ISEPS carried out at the OCEM facility in San Giorgio di Piano, Italy were the final tests before before on-site delivery of the full first ISEPS unit.
When the experimental program on the ITER-scale radio-frequency negative ion source gets underway at the PRIMA test facility in Italy, operators will be counting on power ... lots of it.
The ion-source test bed, called SPIDER, will be capable of running pulses of up to 3,600 seconds at maximum power with hydrogen or deuterium discharges. Designed to test the full-size ITER negative ion source, SPIDER will be twice as large as the largest existing negative ion source, ELISE, in Germany.
The main mission of the SPIDER test bed at PRIMA is to finalize the development of the ion sources required for the ITER neutral beam injectors and to test all essential aspects of the diagnostic neutral beam accelerator. The SPIDER power supply is composed of an acceleration grid power supply provided by India and an ion source extraction grid power supply and transmission line provided by Europe in order to feed the radio frequency ion source. The design and manufacture of the power supplies were carried out in collaboration with Fusion for Energy/RFX and the ITER Organization.
Representatives of the ITER Organization, the European Domestic Agency, OCEM, Himmelwerk, and Consorzio RFX (host to the PRIMA facility) were present for the final tests.
On 14 May 2014, the last components of the ion source and extraction grid power supply (ISEPS) successfully passed factory acceptance tests at the supplier facility in San Giorgio di Piano, Italy (OCEM Energy Technology). The radio frequency power supplies and the DC power supply (provided by OCEM) and the radio frequency generator (provided by sub-contractor Himmelwerk from Germany) were tested on dummy load.
Representatives from the ITER Organization, the European Domestic Agency (Fusion for Energy), the companies OCEM and Himmelwerk, and Consorzio RFX (host to the PRIMA facility) were present to witness the smooth conclusion of the tests.
The testing, carried out over a period of one month, involved running the power supplies at the maximum nominal power of 200kW for a period of 15 minutes.
Read more about the story on the European Domestic Agency website.