Tough Stuff: US ITER electronics will stand up to ITER’s extremes
A team at US ITER has been toughening up critical components of ITER’s vacuum system so they can withstand those harsh conditions.
Vacuum Auxiliary System
The US will contribute 100% towards the roughing pumps and vacuum auxiliary system.
The ITER tokamak, cryostat, and auxiliary vacuum chambers must be evacuated prior to and during operations. The roughing pump system exhausts the torus and neutral beam injector cryopumps, service vacuum, and cryostat. This system will utilize a matrix of pump trains with various technologies to match specific vacuum system requirements, including tritium-compatible backing pumps for torus and neutral beam cryopumps.
The vacuum auxiliary system consists of valves, pipe manifolds, auxiliary pumps, sensors, and controls. The torus and neutral beam injector vacuum manifolds of this system need to be tritium compatible.
For more information, contact: For more information, contact Charles Smith, VAS and RP Team Leader, US ITER Project Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, smithcd1@ornl.gov | 865-241-8576.
Instrumentation and Controls Design Progresses for First Plasma
The I&C team has completed a number of design achievements in preparation of First Plasma deliveries, including: Ion Cyclotron Heating (RF Bldg.) I&C First Plasma Final Design Review (December 2017), Tokamak Cooling Water System I&C First Plasma Final Design Review (November 2017), Vacuum Auxiliary System (03) Conceptual Design Review (July 2017) and Roughing Pumps System I&C Conceptual Design Review (April 2017).
ITER pump design benefits from testing at ORNL Spallation Neutron Source cryogenic facility
The cryogenic test facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) provided a unique environment for testing the performance of a 9 foot-tall tritium-compatible cryoviscous compressor pump prototype designed for the ITER tokamak.
ORNL’s Fusion Pellet Fueling Lab Innovations Support US ITER Systems
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Fusion Pellet Fueling Lab has been at the center of design and testing of plasma fueling systems for tokamak research applications for decades. Since the mid-1970s, lab researchers have been designing, testing, and contributing hardware for fusion magnetic confinement experiments here in the United States and around the world. As the US ITER project moves from design and testing of components to manufacturing, the lab is making prototypes for the ITER tokamak.
