New applications of ORNL neutral beam injectors

The injection of energetic hydrogen and deuterium atoms has been used to heat plasmas in various fusion experimental devices including tokamaks, mirrors, and stellarators. The neutral beam injection is a proven plasma heating technique for increasing plasma densities, temperatures, and pressures. For this fusion endeavor, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed multimegawatt neutral beam injectors. Various ORNL injectors have been used for studying properties of beam-heated plasmas in Oak Ridge Tokamak (ORMAK), Impurity Study Experiment-B (ISX-B), Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF), Princeton Large Torus (PLT), and Princeton Divertor Experiment (PDX) in the United States and in Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak (START) in the United Kingdom. By using a 30-cm and 100-A ion source, each ORNL neutral beam injector is capable of injecting >1.5 MW of hydrogen atoms at 50-keV for a pulse length up to 0.5 s. For increasing plasma densities and raising plasma temperatures in START, one such injector was installed and commissioned during 1995. The initial goal was to provide an injected neutral beam power of more than 0.5 MW at a beam energy of 40 keV for 20 ms. Addition of a getter pump has allowed the beam power to be raised to 1 MW at 33 keV. Recent experiments have demonstrated that neutral beam heating can play a big role in raising plasma pressures to a record volume-average beta value over 30%. ORNL neutral beam injectors have been approved for plasma heating experiments on both the TJ-II stellarator at CIEMAT, Spain, and the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) at Culham Science Centre (Culham). Two proven ORNL NE injectors are being installed at the TJ-II facility. Additional ORNL beam equipment is being used to implement two 5-s NE injectors at the MAST facility. In this paper, we report and discuss the progress and plans for these neutral beam activities.