Power flow along a 40-kV multimegawatt neutral beam line

Abstract

The results of a systematic investigation of the power flow along the Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Princeton Large Torus (ORNL/PLT) neutral beam line, using an intense modified duoPIGatron source with a 22‐cm active grid diameter and 1799 circular apertures that provide 53% transparency, are reported. The variation of power deposited on the different components of the beam line is measured over a wide range of perveance values. The maximum efficiency for beam power transmitted through a 20×25‐cm aperture located 4.1 m downstream was found to be 41%. This efficiency was raised to 53% when a voltage of about 175 V was applied to preaccelerate the ions entering the extraction apertures. Transmission efficiencies approaching 60% were obtained using shaped apertures on the plasma grid. Higher efficiencies should be attainable when used for PLT injection since the acceptance angle for the Princeton tokamak is 11% higher than that of the test facility. Detailed analysis of the results using straight circular apertures without precel voltage suggests that the power‐deposition profiles have broad wings that significantly affect the transmission efficiency. The results allow optimization of the performance of the beam line and provide guidelines for designing future multimegawatt neutral beam lines.