Development of pellet injection systems for ITER

Abstract

7he wbmned nmnusupr has b~e n authored bv a contractor of the U.S. G0Ver-t under contract No DE-Government retams a n o n e x w . ABSTRACTOak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been developing innovative pellet injection systems for plasma fueliig experiments on magnetic fusion confinement devices for about 20 years. Recently, the ORNL development has focused on meeting the complex fueling needs of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). In this paper, we describe the ongoing research and development activities that will lead to a ITER prototype pellet injector test stand. The present effort addresses three main areas: (1) an improved pellet feed and delivery system for centrifuge injectors, (2) a long-pulse (up to steady-state) hydrogen extruder system, and (3) tritium extruder technology. The final prototype system must be fully tritium compatible and will be used to demonstrate the operating parameters and the reliability required for the ITER fueling application.

The effect of pellet volume and aspect ratio on fuel pellet exit velocities in a capillary discharge mass accelerator

“…This momentum is then imparted onto the cryogenically frozen deuterium/tritium pellet that has been compressed into the pellet chamber. The pellet is formulated from deuterium/tritium from a main gas delivery system equipped with freezing, extrusion, slicing and loading capabilities into the interface between the source and the barrel, similar to the techniques proposed by other researchers [1,[14][15][16][17]. Figure 2 shows the barrel attached to the source, along with a visual representation of how the pellet moves through the barrel.…”