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ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility

The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility is a part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Padova, Veneto, Italy. The facility will host the full-scale prototype of the reactor's neutral beam injector, MITICA, and a smaller prototype of its ion source, SPIDER. SPIDER started its operation in June 2018. SPIDER will be used to optimize the ion beam source, to optimize the use of caesium vapor, and to verify the uniformity of the extracted ion beam also during long pulses.

ITER heating neutral beams
To deliver power to the fusion plasma in ITER, two heating neutral beam injectors will be installed. They are designed to provide the power of 17MW each, through the 23m beamlines, up to the four-meter diameter container: in order to deposit sufficient heating power in the plasma core instead of the plasma edges, the beam particle energy shall be about 1MeV, thus increasing the neutral beam system complexity to an unprecedented level. This will be the main auxiliary heating system of the reactor. Due to its low conversion efficiency, the neutral beam injector first needs to start a precursor negative ion beam of 40A, and then neutralizes it by passing it through a gas cell (with an efficiency <60%), and then by a residual ion dump (the remaining 40—20% negative, 20% positive). The neutralized beam is then dumped on a calorimeter during conditioning phases, or coupled with the plasma. Further reionization losses or interception with the mechanical components reduce its current to 17A.