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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
N. Akino et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 758-762
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Plasma Engineering, Heating, Current Drive, and Control | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A777
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In the neutral beam injection (NBI) system, an extension of the pulse duration up to 30 sec has been intended to study quasi-steady state plasma on JT-60U. The four positive-ion based (P-NBI) units, which tangentially inject neutral beam to plasma, were mainly modified on the electric power supplies and the beam limiters to extend the pulse duration up to 30 sec with 2 MW at 80 keV per each. The seven P-NBI units, each of which perpendicularly injects for 10 sec, were conducted to operate in series for the total pulse duration of 30 sec. The ion source of the negative-ion based (N-NBI) unit, whose target beam energy is 500 keV for 10 sec, was also modified to reduce the heat load of the grid for long pulse operation. The reduction of the re-ionization of the neutral beam in the beam drift duct was a key to achieve a long pulse injection. It was found that the pressure rise in the beam drift duct, which gives the re-ionization rate, depended on the temperature of the re-ionization plates during NBI injection. Up to now, it was attained successfully that the pulse duration of the tangential P-NBI unit was extended up to 30 sec. 310 MJ of the total integrated injection energy into JT-60U plasma was achieved, including the negative-ion based NBI operation for 17 sec at 366 keV.