Significant progress within the Neutral Beam Power Supplies area

Two important events have recently taken place in F4E’s Neutral Beam Power Supplies area. Both concern the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF), where prototypes of the ITER Neutral Beam Injector are under construction. 

Following successful site acceptance tests last year, the ownership and responsibility for the Ion Source and Extraction Power Supply (ISEPS) for the SPIDER test bed were officially transferred from F4E to the ITER Organization on 6 February 2017. As the test facility is located in Italy, its operation is in the hands of Consorzio RFX — for this reason, the responsibility for use of this power supply was transferred on the same day to them. Occupying a full room at the NBTF, and feeding the radio frequency ion source, ISEPS constitutes an important power supply component for SPIDER, the test bed where the first full-scale ITER ion source will be tested and developed. The design, manufacture, installation and testing of the power supplies were carried out in collaboration with F4E, the supplier OCEM ET (Italy) and its main subcontractor Himmelwerk GmbH (Germany), facility host Consorzio RFX and ITER IO.

F4E also concluded in December 2016 the procurement of the Transmission Line and High Voltage Deck for the SPIDER experiment. It is the first full-scope contract involving design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of equipment for the NBTF to be completed. The Transmission Line connects the power supplies ISEPS to the Beam Source of SPIDER while the High Voltage Deck is the electrically insulated mechanical structure hosting ISEPS. These components were supplied by COELME SpA (Italy). 

The achievement of these two milestones concludes the contribution of F4E to the power supplies of the SPIDER experiment.

Meanwhile, the procurement of the European contribution to the power supplies of MITICA — the second experiment of the NBTF consisting in a full-scale injector — is well underway. 

The manufacturing and factory testing of the High Voltage Deck hosting the power supplies of MITICA Ion Source and connecting them to the 1 MV Transmission Line (procured by the Japanese Domestic Agency), via the High Voltage Bushing Assembly (a container which holds the power leads from the power supplies located in the High Voltage Deck) is now completed, with installation on site scheduled to start in March. This equipment is being supplied by SIEMENS AG (Germany), together with main subcontractors HSP GmbH (Germany) and Andreas Karl GmbH (Germany). 

In parallel, the design activities are now finished for the Ground Related Power Supplies of MITICA (GRPS) and for the European part of the power supplies of the accelerator (AGPS), which is shared between F4E and the Japanese ITER Domestic Agency. The manufacturing of these power supplies is underway and their installation at the NBTF is scheduled to start at the end of the summer. The European part of AGPS is supplied by NIDEC-ASI (Italy) while the GRPS are supplied by OCEM ET (Italy).

Finally, the procurement of the second unit of ISEPS, this time for MITICA experiment, is on-going, with manufacturing activities scheduled to start in March.