Operating characteristics of a new ion source for KSTAR neutral beam injection system.

A new positive ion source for the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research neutral beam injection (KSTAR NBI-1) system was designed, fabricated, and assembled in 2011. The characteristics of the arc discharge and beam extraction were investigated using hydrogen and helium gas to find the optimum operating parameters of the arc power, filament voltage, gas pressure, extracting voltage, accelerating voltage, and decelerating voltage at the neutral beam test stand at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in 2012. Based on the optimum operating condition, the new ion source was then conditioned, and performance tests were primarily finished.

Long pulse beam extraction with a prototype ion source for the KSTAR neutral beam system.

Long pulse operational characteristics of the high current ion source for the KSTAR neutral beam system are described. The beam pulse length of 300 s was successfully operated at a beam power of 1.6 MW with a beam energy of 70 keV.

Study on an azimuthal line cusp ion source for the KSTAR neutral beam injector.

In this study it is found that the cusp magnetic field configuration of an anode bucket influences the primary electron behavior. An electron orbit code (ELEORBIT code) showed that an azimuthal line cusp (cusp lines run azimuthally with respect to the beam extraction direction) provides a longer primary electron confinement time than an axial line cusp configuration. Experimentally higher plasma densities were obtained under the same arc power when the azimuthal cusp chamber was used.