Development and operational experiences of the JT-60U tokamak and power supplies

Hosogane, Nobuyuki; Ninomiya, Hiromasa; Matsukawa, Makoto; Ando, Toshiro; Neyatani, Yuzuru; Horiike, Hiroshi*; Sakurai, Shinji; Masaki, Kei; Yamamoto, Masahiro; Kodama, Kozo; Sasajima, Tadayuki; Terakado, Tsunehisa; Omori, Shunzo; Omori, Yoshikazu; Okano, Jun

This paper reviews developments of the JT-60U tokamak and coil power supplies and their operational experiences obtained to date. The JT-60U is a large tokamak upgraded from the original JT-60 to obtain high plasma current, large plasma volume and highly elongated divertor configurations. In the modification, all components inside the bore of toroidal magnetic field coils, a vacuum vessel, poloidal magnetic field coils (PF-coils), divertor etc., were renewed. Furthermore, boron carbide converted CFC tiles were used as divertor tiles to reduce erosion of carbon-base tiles. Later, a semi-closed divertor with pumps was installed in the replacement of the open divertor. Various technologies and ideas introduced to develop these components their operational experiences provide important data for designing future tokamaks. Also, major troubles that had influence on the JT-60U operations are described. As a maintenance issue for tokamaks using deuterium fueling gas, a method for reducing radiation exposure of in-vessel workers are introduced.