Long pulse operation of 170 GHz ITER gyrotron by beam current control
Kasugai, Atsushi; Minami, Ryutaro; Takahashi, Koji; Kobayashi, Noriyuki; Sakamoto, Keishi
In JAEA (Japan Atomic Energy Agency, formerly JAERI), development of 170 GHz, 1 MW, CW gyrotron for ITER has been carried out. Key technologies for ITER gyrotron such as a diamond window, a depressed collector for high efficiency operation and a stable operation at 170 GHz/1 MW with higher mode TE31,8 have been developed. By integration of these key technologies, gyrotron performance of 0.5 MW/ 100 sec and 0.9 MW/ 9.2 sec were demonstrated. Hence, next target is a demonstration of long pulse operation. One of the issues which prevent the pulse extension is large beam current decrease due to so called the emission cooling of a cathode. During the operation, the oscillation mode shift from TE31,8 to TE30,8 was caused by the current decrease. Then, the magnetic field of the cavity should be increased to avoid the downshift of the oscillation mode, however, the efficiency decreases and the parasitic oscillation appears in a quasi-optical mode converter. To suppress the beam current decrease and to demonstrate the long pulse operation of the high power gyrotron, pre-programming control of the cathode heater power was applied and the long pulse experiment was carried out to sustain the beam current. As a result, stable electron beam of 1000 s, which is required for ITER operation, was demonstrated without oscillation, and pre-programming control directed the effectiveness for constant beam current. Moreover, in the experiment of the long pulse oscillation with oscillation, the pre-programming control suppressed the beam current decrease. Up to now, stable long pulse operation of 8 minutes with 0.2 MW output power was obtained. The output energy of the oscillation is maximum value in the 170GHz ITER gyrotron. Since overheating due to stray radiation inside the gyrotron limit the pulse extension, long pulse operation with high power output will be achieved by enhancement of the cooling and reduction of stray radiation due to modification of a built-in mode converter.