Development of pellet injector using screw type pellet extruder; Improvement of pellet extruder for high frequency and long duration, and its test results

Ichige, Hisashi; Honda, Masao; Sasaki, Shunichi; Takenaga, Hidenobu; Matsuzawa, Yukihiro; Haga, Saburo; Ishige, Yoichi

In JT-60U, pellet injector has been developed for improvement of density controllability and long operation duration consistent with a long pulse discharge (65 s) started from FY2003. The injection frequency and operation duration were limited by extrusion speed and volume of the piston type pellet extruder, respectively, in the previous system. The screw type pellet extruder made in Russian company was newly installed in the system, which can continuously extrude the pellet at high speed and has been used in other fusion devices. After parts of the pellet injector system moved from JT-60 torus hall for efficient work, the previous piston type pellet extruder was changed to the new screw type pellet extruder and the tests for continuous pellet extrusion were performed. In the extrusion test using deuterium gas as a working gas, continuous pellet extrusion up to 330s was achieved, which is sufficient performance for applying it to JT-60U experiments.