At the beginning of November 2010, F4E Director Frank Briscoe and ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima signed the Procurement Arrangement (PA) for the European share of the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) being built in Padua, Italy. Worth 27 kIUA of credits from ITER IO (approximately 42 million EUR), this PA is an excellent example of the international collaboration of the ITER project.
Today, Neutral Beam Injectors are used routinely in major fusion devices and are normally based on the acceleration of positive ions. However, since ITER will be larger and more powerful than any existing fusion machine, it is necessary that its injectors go beyond the present technology, in particular in terms of beam energy (1 MeV), injected power (16.5 MW from each injector) and pulse length (up to 3600 s). The ITER Neutral Beam system, consisting of 2 Heating Neutral Beam injectors (HNB), with a possible third injector foreseen, will be based on negative ion (hydrogen and deuterium) beams which will be neutralised and then injected into the plasma, transferring the energy from the beams to the plasma particles.
The main aims of the NBTF are to complete the development of the ion source, the beam source and the beamline components for the ITER neutral beam systems. Testing will be carried with the objective of reaching the full performances for the Heating Neutral Beam (HNB) injectors and the Diagnostics Neutral Beam (DNB) ion source, developing the 1MV ITER Heating Injector to progressively reach the required parameters, as well as mitigating risks and giving support to the ITER operation.
Europe, India and Japan are the three ITER parties that contribute with components to this project which now carries the name “Padua Research on ITER Megavolt Accelerator” (PRIMA). PRIMA itself will host two independent test-stands. A first test bed, named SPIDER, will be aimed at testing and optimising the negative ion source of the HNB. SPIDER will also be used for the development of the ITER Diagnostic Neutral Beam (DNB) whose procurements are under the responsibility of the Indian Domestic Agency. A second test stand, a full size ITER HNB prototype called MITICA, will test the design adopted for the HNB. After the procurement of the first two ITER injectors, the experimental program will be extended to accompany and support the ITER operation. This extended operation phase will be dedicated also to testing possible new operating scenarios and technical improvements.
While India will provide some components for SPIDER and Japan for MITICA, F4E has the responsibility for most of the NBTF procurements, including the core components (beam sources, beam line components, cryopump) and all the supporting systems, the cooling, the distribution of the insulating gas SF6, the cryosystem, the instrumentation and the control and data acquisition system, and the gas injection systems for both test beds.
The procurement procedures for the main components of SPIDER, namely the power supplies of the ion source, the vessel and the beam source, have been already launched and it is foreseen to sign the biggest part of all the contracts necessary for its establishment during 2011.
SPIDER is foreseen to be operative by 2014 while MITICA will start operating in 2017.
Getting closer to delivering Europe’s first units by SIMIC-CNIM.
A forum to strengthen ties and shape fusion procurement and contracts.
50.000 EUR for adapting an ITER cable solution to space or particle accelerators.
Europe and Japan collaborate to monitor next plasma operations.
A summary of the ideas and actions proposed by EU fusion stakeholders.
Servers and workstations are installed as the first teams move in.