Pre-series and testing route for the serial fabrication of W7-X target elements

The fabrication of the actively cooled high-heat flux divertor of the WENDELSTEIN 7-X stellarator (W7-X) requires the delivery of 890 target elements, which are designed to withstand a stationary heat flux of 10 MW/m². The organization of the manufacturing and testing route for the serial fabrication is the result of the pre-series activities. Flat CFC Sepcarb^® NB31 tiles are bonded to CuCrZr copper alloy cooling structure in consecutive steps. A copper layer is active metal cast to CFC tiles, and then an OF-copper layer is added by hot isostatic pressing to produce bi-layer tiles. These tiles are bonded by electron beam welding onto the cooling structure, which was manufactured independently. The introduction of the bi-layer technology proved to be a significant improvement of the bond reliability under thermal cycling loading. This result is also the consequence of the improved bond inspections throughout the manufacturing route performed in the ARGUS pulsed thermography facility of PLANSEE. The repairing process by electron beam welding of the bonding was also qualified. The extended pre-series activities related to the qualification of fabrication processes with the relevant non-destructive examinations aim to minimize the risks for the serial manufacturing and to guarantee the steady-state operation of the W7-X divertor.     

Design and validation of a 700 kW/CW water load for 3.7 GHz klystrons

To develop Continuous Wave (CW) high power klystrons for fusion experiments, calorimetric matched loads absorbing the RF power are necessary. To test and adjust the parameters of the new klystrons TH2103C [1] able to produce 700 kW/CW at a frequency of 3.7 GHz for upgrading the RF power available in Tore Supra LHCD transmitter, SPINNER GmbH has successfully developed, in collaboration with the CEA, and manufactured a water load capable to absorb the RF power with a Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) < 1.05. Crucial part of the water load is the ceramic window cooled with demineralised water to absorb the RF power. Klystrons working at different frequencies like 4.6 GHz and 5 GHz are being developed for CW experiments. The water load could be adapted for these frequencies. The paper describes the specifications, the development and the high RF power tests to validate the dummy load.     

Design and assembly technology for the thermal insulation of the W7-X cryostat

The Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik in Greifswald is building up the stellarator fusion experiment Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X). To operate the superconducting magnet system the vacuum and the cold structures are protected by a thermal insulated cryostat. The plasma vessel forms the inner cryostat wall, the outer wall is realised by a thermal insulated outer vessel. In addition 254 thermal insulated ports are fed through the cryogenic vacuum to allow the access to the plasma vessel for heating systems, supply lines or plasma diagnostics.The thermal insulation is being manufactured and assembled by MAN Diesel & Turbo SE (Germany). It consists of a multi-layer insulation (MLI) made of aluminized Kapton with a silk like fibreglass spacer and a thermal shield covering the inner cryostat surfaces. The shield on the plasma vessel is made of fibreglass reinforced epoxy resin with integrated copper meshes. The outer vessel insulation is made of brass panels with an average size of 3.3 × 2.0 m². Cooling loops made of stainless steel are connected via copper strips to the brass panels. Especially the complex 3 D shape of the plasma vessel, the restricted space inside the cryostat and the consideration of the operational component movements influenced the design work heavily. The manufacturing and the assembly has to fulfil stringent geometrical tolerances e.g. for the outer vessel panels +3/?2 mm.     

Design and analysis of the W7-X divertor scraper element

Thehigh heat-flux divertor of the Wendelstein 7-X large stellarator experiment consists of 10 divertor units which are designed to carry a steady-state heat flux of 10 MW/m². However, the edge elements of this divertor are limited to only 5 MW/m², and may be overloaded in certain plasma scenarios. It is proposed to reduce this heat by placing an additional “scraper element” in each of the ten divertor locations. It will be constructed using carbon fiber composite (CFC) monoblock technology. The design of the monoblocks and the path of the cooling tubes must be optimized in order to survive the significant steady-state heat loads, provide adequate coverage for the existing divertor, be located within sub-millimeter accuracy, and take into account the boundaries to other in vessel components, all at a minimum cost. Computational fluid dynamics modeling has been performed to examine the thermal transfer through the monoblock swirl tube channels for the design of the monoblock orientation. An iterative physics modeling and computer aided design process is being performed to optimize the placement of the scraper element within the severe spatial restrictions.     

Processing of the quench detection signals in W7-X

The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) project uses superconductive coils for generation of the magnetic field to keep the plasma. One of the important safety systems is the protection against quench events. The quench detection system of W7-X protects the superconducting coils, the superconducting bus bar sections and the high temperature superconductor of the current leads against the damage because of a quench and against the high stress by a fast discharge of the magnet system.Therefore, the present design of the quench detection system (QDS) uses a two-stage safety concept for discharging the magnetic system. This paper describes the present design of the system assembly from the quench detection unit (QDU) for the detection of the quench to the quench detection interface (QDI) to implement the two-stage safety concept.     

Designing and manufacturing of the coil support structure of W7-X

Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) is a fully optimized low-shear stellarator and shall demonstrate the reactor potential of this fusion plant. It is presently under construction at the Greifswald Branch Institute of IPP. The superconducting magnet system will allow continuous operation, limited only by the plasma exhaust system whose capacity is designed for 30 min full power operation. The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) coils and structures are part of the largest superconducting fusion device being constructed at present. They represent a technical challenge at industrial level and the need for proven techniques and manufacturing processes in accordance to the highest quality standards. The production of these components requires a management of monitoring for quality and tests. The coil system consists of 20 planar and 50 non-planar coils. They are supported by a pentagonal 10 m diameter, 2.5 m high coil support structure (CSS). The CSS is divided into five modules. Each module consists of two equal half modules. The manufacturing status of the CSS and the main project management and technical challenges will be presented. The lessons learned in the large scale production of this difficult kind of support structure will be presented as relevant experience for the realization of similar systems for future fusion devices, such as ITER.     

Development of W coatings for fusion applications

The paper gives a short overview on tungsten (W) coatings deposited by various methods on carbon materials (carbon fibre composite – CFC and fine grain graphite – FGG). Vacuum Plasma Spray (VPS), Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) techniques are analyzed in respect with the characteristics and performances of the W coatings.A particular attention is paid to the Combined Magnetron Sputtering and Ion Implantation (CMSII) technique, which was developed during the last 4 years from laboratory to industrial scale and it is successfully applied for W coating (10–15 μm and 20–25 μm) of more than 2500 tiles for the ITER-like Wall project at JET and ASDEX Upgrade. This technique involves simultaneously magnetron sputtering and high energy (tens of keV) ion implantation. Due to the ion bombardment a stress relief occurs within the coating enabling its growth without delamination to a relatively large thickness. In addition, in order to adjust the thermal expansion mismatch between CFC and W, a Mo interlayer of 2–3 μm is currently used. Experimentally, W/Mo coatings with a thickness up to 50 μm were produced and successfully tested in the GLADIS ion beam facility up to 23 MW/m².     

Design,manufacture and testing of the glow discharge electrodes for Wendelstein 7-X

The electrodes for the Wendelstein 7-X glow discharge system have been designed, tested and manufactured. The compact design relies on a cooled housing, integrated into the first wall cooling system, and a calotte-shaped graphite anode. The new mounting concept avoids the need of active cooling of the anode due to an improved thermal conduction. Comprehensive tests of a prototype electrode had been carried out in laboratory and in the ASDEX Upgrade Tokamak during two operation campaigns. The electrode showed excellent and reliable long-time discharge behavior and fulfilled all the requirements regarding temperature limits and maintainability resulting from the steady-state operation of W7-X.     

W7-X neutral-beam-injection: Selection of the NBI source positions for experiment start-up

The stellarator W7-X will be equipped with two Neutral-Beam-Injector (NBI) boxes for balanced injection. Each NBI box has 2 tangential and 2 radial source positions. For the experimental start-up phase each NBI box will be only equipped with 2 ion sources. For the selection of the initial 2 NBI source positions per box three physical aspects were examined (transmission and duct power deposition, shine through and heating efficiency).Using hydrogen injection the heating power to the plasma under typically planned conditions should be 1.3 MW for the tangential sources and 1.1 MW for the radial sources (deuterium: 2 MW for the tangential sources, 1.8 MW for the radial sources). The tangential source positions all have similar heating efficiencies. One of them suffers from the lowest duct transmission (highest power-load to the duct). The same source hits a component with a low power-load capability. The W7-X inner wall design will be modified in order to enhance the maximum power-load capability of that component. For the radial source positions there is no clear physics advantage of one position over the other. Taking all aspects into consideration the decision was made to use one tangential source and one radial source per box during the experimental start-up phase.     

Thermal and structural analysis of the W7-X magnet heat radiation shield

The thermal insulation of the W7-X – cryostat consists of multi-layer insulation (MLI) and an actively cooled thermal shield. The shield is cooled by He gas flowing in pipes, which are flexibly attached via copper braids. The paper presents the basic mechanical and thermal layout of the complex plasma vessel shield, which is made of a glass fibre compound with three embedded copper nets.Main mechanical loads on the shield are electromagnetic forces resulting from rapid shut down of the magnet system, and the self weight. Design and calculations were performed iteratively to determine the number as well as orientation of electrical insulation gaps within the copper nets, and the number and positions of the supports.It is shown that the maximum displacements of the panels, the maximum forces on the supports, and the shield temperatures fulfil the requirements.     

Development of a 140 GHz Steerable Launcher for the HL-2A ECRH System

A new electron cyclotron resonance launcher system has been designed and installed on heating and current drive （ECRH/ECCD） the HL-2A tokamak to inject four beams and enable continuous millimeter-wave beam scanning independently in the toroidal and poloidal direc- tions for ECRH/ECCD experiments. The launcher is connected to four mm-wave lines capable of transmitting high power up to 3 MW with two 1 MW/140 GHz/3 s and two 0.5 MW/68 GHz/1 s beams. Based on ray tracing simulation using the TORAY-GA code, tile scanning range of wave beams is -15~~15~ in the toroidal direction and 0~~10~ in the poloidal one for 140 GHz beams, which could cover half of the cross section of plasmas and can satisfy the requirements of advanced physical experiments. The beam radii in the plasma is 17.1 mm and 20 mm for the two 140 GHz beams and 29.5 nnn for the two 68 GHz beams, respectively, allowing a very high localization of the absorbed power. The performance of the steering system was proven to be reliable and the linearity is perfect between the displacement of drive shaft and rotate angle of mirror. Addition- ally the injection performance of the wave beams was optinfized by simultaneously setting the injection angle and the polarization to realize desirable pure O- or X-mode injection.     

Development of high voltage power supply for the KSTAR 170 GHz ECH and CD system

A 3.6 MW (66 kV/55 A) DC power supply system was developed for the 170 GHz EC H&CD system in KSTAR. The power supply system consists of a cathode power supply (CPS), an anode power supply (APS) and a body power supply (BPS). The cathode power supply is capable of supplying a maximum voltage of ?66 kV and a current of 55 A to the cathode with respect to the collector using pulse step modulation (PSM). The high voltage switching system for the cathode is made by a fast MOS-FET solid-state switch which can turn off the high voltage to the cathode within 3 μs in the occurrence of gyrotron faults. The APS is a voltage divider system consisting of a fixed resistor and zener diode units with the capability of 60 kV stand-off voltage. The anode voltage with respect to the cathode is controlled in a range of 0–60 kV by turning the MOS-FET switches connected in parallel to each zener diode on and off. For high frequency current modulation of the gyrotron, the parallel discharge switch is introduced between the cathode and anode in order to clamp the charged voltage in the stray capacitance. The BPS is a DC power supply with the capability of 50 kV/160 mA. The nominal operation parameter of BPS was 23 kV and 10 mA, respectively, and the voltage output is regulated with a stability of 0.025% of the rated voltage. The series MOS-FET solid-state switch is used for on/off modulation in the body voltage sychronizing with anode voltage. The parallel discharge switch is also introduced between the body and collector for high frequency RF modulation. This paper describes the key features of the high voltage power supply system of the KSTAR 170 GHz gyrotron as well as the test results of the power supply.     

Design principles for handmade electrical insulation of superconducting joints in W7-X

The superconducting magnet system of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) experiment consists of 50 non-planar and 20 planar coils, 121 bus bars and 14 current leads. The connection between bus bars, coils and current leads will be provided by 198 joints. The joints have to be insulated manually during the assembly of the machine in constraint positions and a tight environment. In general the insulation is based on glass tapes impregnated with epoxy resin and special G10 insulating pieces embedded in the glass tape insulation. In critical areas Kapton^®-foils are embedded in the insulation. All types of insulation were qualified at mock-ups in a 1:1 model of the expected environment in W7-X. The qualification programme comprises thermal cycling between room temperature and 77 K and high voltage tests under air, under vacuum and under reduced pressure (Paschen test). The paper describes the main principles used for different types of handmade Paschen-tight insulations in W7-X and the visual and electrical tests during and after assembly.     

Completion of designing and manufacturing of the coil support structure of W7-X

In February 2000, the project called coil support structure for the Wendelstein 7-X fusion machine was started. Since October 2009 the full production of this big (80 tons) and complex component is now completed and delivered at IPP Greifswald. The W7-X coil system consists of 20 planar and 50 non-planar coils. They are supported by a pentagonal 10 m diameter, 2.5 m high called coil support structure (CSS). The CSS is divided into five modules and each module consists of two equal half modules around the radial axis. Currently, the five modules were successfully assembled with the coils meeting the tight manufacturing tolerances. Designing, structural calculation, raw material procurement, welding & soldering technologies, milling, drilling, accurate machining, helium cooling pipe forming, laser metrology, ultra sonic cleaning and vacuum test are some of the key points used all along this successful manufacturing process. The lessons learned in the large scale production of this difficult kind of support structure will be presented as relevant experience for the realization of similar systems for future fusion devices, such as ITER.     

Resource checking and event handling within the W7-X segment control framework

ITER, Wendelstein 7-X, LHD, and TORE SUPRA are experimental facilities designed to lead the way to steady state fusion devices. These experiments require strategies to sustain a discharge in case of unforeseen events, e.g. heat overloads of plasma facing components or the failure of a plasma heating source. A recovery strategy is needed to get the discharge back for physics exploitation. For this purpose the W7-X segment control framework provides means for automated event detection along with options to formulate and initiate a recovery strategy. Besides handling of failures and degradation there are events that represent a desired plasma physical effect. An example for this kind of event is a transition to from Low to High-Confinement mode. These events indicate that a certain plasma state is reached and scientific examination can be altered thus enabling event-driven multiple experiments per discharge. Examples of both kinds of events will be presented and compared to other approaches in the community.     

Upgraded acceptance criteria from transient thermography control for the W7-X divertor target elements

The commissioning of plasma-facing component fields needs advanced non-destructive methods to detect in a reliable way the defects, which can impair the component performances and/or integrity during operation. Within this framework, CEA developed a dedicated non-destructive examination method based on active infrared thermography (SATIR facility) to inspect the bonding between armour material and metallic heat sink. Used with successful in the commissioning of the toroidal pump limiter of Tore Supra, this technique was applied in the frame of the pre-series activities of the Wendelstein 7-X high heat flux divertor elements to assess the bonding quality of the delivered components.This paper presents the methodology adopted to define an acceptance criterion based on SATIR test bed possibly applied for a serial inspection of the Wendelstein 7-X elements. Using the well-tried acceptance test based on the DTref_max parameter, the new method includes advanced data post-processing techniques from thermo-signal SATIR and a data merging method to help the decision-making and to optimise the reliability of the binary response expected for a final decision in terms of acceptance test.     

Structural analysis of W7-X: From design to assembly and operation

The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) modular stellarator is in the assembly phase at the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik in Greifswald, Germany. The design of the “basic machine”, i.e. without in-vessel components, diagnostics and periphery, is largely completed, structural parameters such as bolt preload, initial conditions for contact elements, etc. are defined, and most of the components are manufactured and partly assembled. Therefore, the focus of structural analysis was shifted towards fast analyses of non-conformities, changes in the assembly procedure, and exploration of operational limits. Assembly-related work is expected to continue until commissioning of the machine, however, with decreasing intensity. In parallel the analysis requirements for in-vessel components, diagnostics and periphery will increase.This paper focuses on the most remarkable results, on special problems which had to be solved, on strategic issues like parameterization, complex finite element model structuring and benchmarking with alternative models in different codes, on assumptions of reasonable safety margins and expected tolerances, and on confirmation of analysis results by tests. Finally it highlights some lessons learned so far, which might be relevant also for other large fusion machines, and gives an outlook on future work.     

Investigation of turbulence rotation in the SOL and plasma edge of W7-X for different magnetic configurations

The W7-X stellarator is optimized with respect to neoclassical transport. Therefore turbulent transport plays an important role. It is equipped with an inertial cooled graphite divertor which intersects the island chain at the plasma edge depending on the magnetic configuration. Additional control coils and the plasma current modify the iota profile at the plasma edge and shift the position of the island chain. To monitor the effects on the poloidal propagation velocity in the scrape-off layer(SOL) and the plasma edge, an O-mode Poloidal Correlation Reflectometer(PCR) is used which simultaneously monitors the propagation of low-k turbulence. Operating in the density range of 0.6?×?10~(19) m~(-3) to2?×?10~(19) m~(-3) it covers a large part of the SOL and the plasma edge and allows for the experimental determination in the last closed flux surface(LCFS) and the associated shear layer in low to middensity discharges. In this paper it is shown that the propagation in the shear layer and its vicinity is determined best, when based on an elliptical model. Different magnetic configurations with magnetic edge topology of five independent islands for ι?=?1 and six linked islands for ι?=?0.81 are investigated. Also the effects of the plasma current and additional control coils on the edge magnetic topology are studied. The coherence spectra of antenna pairs for different poloidal separations is investigated. Using a decomposition method for the measured coherence spectra the characterization of turbulence spectra is possible with respect to e.g. broad band turbulence and quasi coherent modes.A strong reduction of the broad band turbulence is observed in the vicinity of the LCFS which is evidence for the suppression of low-k turbulence at the shear layer.     

The procurement and testing of the stainless steel in-vessel panels of the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator

320 In-vessel water cooled stainless steel panels, poloidal closure plates and pumping gap panels, covering an area of approximately 100 m², are used in Wendelstein7-X to protect the plasma vessel. The panels are manufactured at Deggendorf, Germany by MAN Diesel & Turbo SE. The panels consist of a laser welded sandwich of stainless steel plates together with a labyrinth of cooling channels and have a complicated geometry to fit the plasma vessel of Wendelstein 7-X. The hydraulic and mechanical stability requirements whilst maintaining the tight tolerances for the shape of the components are very demanding. The panels are designed to operate at up to an average heat load of 100 kW/m² and a maximum heat load of 200 kW/m² with a water velocity of approximately 2 m s^?1. High heat flux testing of an un-cooled panel at a time averaged load of 200 kW/m² for 10 s were successfully performed to support the start up phase of Wendelstein 7-X operation. Extensive testing both during manufacture and after delivery to IPP-Garching demonstrates the suitability of the delivered panels for their purpose.