학술논문

A toroidal liquid lithium limiter for CDX-U
Document Type
Conference
Source
Proceedings of the 19th IEEE/IPSS Symposium on Fusion Engineering. 19th SOFE (Cat. No.02CH37231) Fusion engineering Fusion Engineering, 2002. 19th Symposium on. :341-344 2002
Subject
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Nuclear Engineering
Lithium
Physics
Plasma diagnostics
Inductors
Testing
Laboratories
Steel
Surface discharges
Heating
Rails
Language
Abstract
Attention has focused recently on flowing liquid lithium as a first wall for a reactor because of its potentially attractive physics and engineering features. In order to test the suitability of liquid lithium as a plasma facing component, the Current Drive eXperiment - Upgrade (CDX-U) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory has recently installed a fully toroidal liquid lithium limiter. CDX-U is a compact (R = 34 cm, a = 22 cm, B/sub toroidal/ = 2 kG, I/sub p/ =100 kA, T/sub e/(O) /spl sim/ 100 eV, n/sub e/(0) /spl sim/ 5 /spl times/ 10/sup 19/ m/sup -3/ short-pulse (< 25 msec) spherical torus (ST) with extensive diagnostics. The limiter, which consists of a shallow circular stainless steel tray of radius 34 cm and width 10 cm, is filled with lithium to a depth of a few millimeters, and forms the lower limiting surface for the discharge. Heating elements beneath the tray are used to liquefy the lithium (melting point = 180.5/spl deg/C) prior to the experiment. The total area of liquid lithium exposed to the plasma is approximately 2000 cm/sup 2/. The design of the limiter, modifications to CDX-U to accommodate in-vessel inventories of approximately 1 liter of liquid lithium, techniques for loading lithium onto the limiter, and other preparations will be described. CDX-U has previously been successfully operated with a smaller area cm/sup 2/) liquid lithium rail limiter. Diagnostics specific to lithium operations include multichord spectrometry of the 135 /spl Aring/ LiIII line in the core plasma, monitors for neutral lithium light at the lithium limiter, and a fast (10,000 frame per second) camera which monitors motion of the liquid during the discharge. First results of plasma operations with the toroidal liquid lithium limiter will also be given.