KSTAR soon to begin third operation campaign
16 Jul 2010
KSTAR is now ready to begin its third operation campaign at Korea's National Fusion Research Institute. © Peter Ginter
South Korea will soon conduct the third operation campaign of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research device (KSTAR) at the National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI).
During the first and second operation campaigns, KSTAR superconducting magnets showed reliable operation characteristics up to the designed value of 3.5 Teslas.
Major experimental goals of the third campaign are to achieve D-shaped and diverted plasma over 500 kA and to study the plasma behaviour during the application of the heating systems, amongst which will be a newly developed neutral beam injector system.
A birds-eye view of the inside of the KSTAR vacuum vessel after the installation of all the in-vessel components.
KSTAR was significantly upgraded following the second operation campaign and in preparation for the third. All the plasma-facing components are now installed inside the vacuum vessel, as are the sixteen segmented in-vessel control coils that are positioned behind the plasma-facing components.
During the upcoming campaign, the first of three ion sources in the neutral beam injection system, designed to deliver 8 MW, will be commissioned to provide 1 MW beam power.
The neutral beam injector system has been designed to deliver the deuterium beam for 300 seconds.