Development of ITER equatorial EC launcher components toward the final design

Takahashi, Koji; Kajiwara, Ken; Oda, Yasuhisa; Sakamoto, Keishi; Omori, Toshimichi*; Henderson, M.*

Development of an electron cyclotron (EC) equatorial launcher has been undergoing a series of prototype tests and design enhancements intending to improve reliability and functionality of the launcher. The design enhancements include adaptation of the launcher steering angles such that one of three beam rows of the launcher is necessary flipped to perform counter current drive (to conform to a new ITER physics requirement). Also the top and bottom steering rows have been tilted with angle of 5 so that the top and bottom beam row can access from on axis to near mid-radius. Furthermore, the position of the focusing mirror that forms a quasi-optical in-vessel millimeter wave transmission line is modified to increase the nuclear shielding capability. High power experiment of the mm-wave launching system mock-up fabricated in basis of the design confirmed the successful steering capability of 2040. It was measured that some of stray RF propagated in the beam duct and generated some heat on the duct at a certain condition of mm-wave transmission. Prototype tests also include the fabrication of the blanket shield module and the partial port plug mock-up and have shown no serious technological issue on the fabrication and the cooling functionality.