Upgrading the data acquisition and control systems of the European Breeding Blanket Test Facility

The EBBTF (European Breeding Blanket Test Facility) experimental plant is a key component for the development of the breeding blankets (TBMs test blanket modules, HCLL helium cooled lithium lead and HCPB helium cooled pebble bed types) used by ITER. EBBTF is an experimental plant which provides the double breeding/cooling loops (liquid metal and gas) required for HCLL testing. EBBTF is composed of four subsystems (TBM, IELLLO integrated European lead lithium loop, HE-FUS3 helium fusion loop, version 3 and helium compressor build by ATEKO) with dedicated control systems realized with hardware/software combinations covering 15 years (1995–2010) time span. At the end of 2010 we began to upgrade the HE-FUS3 data acquisition control systems (DACS) replacing the obsolete PLC Siemens S5 with National Instruments Compact FieldPoint and LabVIEW. The control room has been completely reorganized using high resolution monitors and workstations linked with standard Ethernet interfaces. The data acquisition, control, safety and SCADA software has been completely developed in ENEA using LabVIEW. In this paper we are going to discuss the technical difficulties and the solutions that we have used to accomplish the upgrade.     

RADI—A RF source size-scaling experiment towards the ITER neutral beam negative ion source

IPP Garching is currently developing a negative hydrogen ion RF source for the ITER neutral beam system. The source demonstrated already current densities in excess of the ITER requirements (>200 A/m² D⁻) at the required source pressure and electron/ion ratio, but with only small extraction area and limited pulse length. A new test facility (RADI) went recently into operation for the demonstration of the required (plasma) homogeneity of a large RF source and the modular driver concept.The source with the dimension of 0.8 m × 0.76 m has roughly the width and half the height of the ITER source; its modular driver concept will allow an easy extrapolation in only one direction to the full size ITER source. The RF power supply consists of two 180 kW, 1 MHz RF generators capable of 30 s pulses. A dummy grid matches the conductance of the ITER source. Full size extraction is presently not possible due to the lack of an insulator, a large size extraction system and a beam dump.The main parameters determining the performance of this “half-size” source are the negative ion and electron density in front of the grid as well as the homogeneity of their profiles across the grid. Those will be measured by optical emission and cavity ring down spectroscopy, by Langmuir probes and laser detachment. These methods have been calibrated to the extracted current densities achieved at the smaller source test facilities at IPP for similar source parameters. However, in order to get some information about the possible ion and electron currents, local single aperture extraction with a Faraday cup system is planned.     

诊断中性束电源的数据采集与处理系统

文中介绍了一种用于诊断中性束电源系统的数据采集与处理系统(DPAS).在电源系统的运行过程中,系统需要对18路电流/电压信号进行实时采集.DPAS采用网络技术以客户端/服务器模式进行开发.系统引进了一种高效的压缩算法从而大量地节约了数据存储所需的磁盘空间.系统所采用的数据存储格式与EastScope软件(一款用于查看实验数据的软件)兼容,从而使实验操作人员可以很容易对实验结果进行分析和总结.     

Discharge Characteristics of Large-Area High-Power RF Ion Source for Positive and Negative Neutral Beam Injectors

A large-area high-power radio-frequency(RF) driven ion source was developed for positive and negative neutral beam injectors at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI). The RF ion source consists of a driver region, including a helical antenna and a discharge chamber, and an expansion region. RF power can be transferred at up to 10 kW with a fixed frequency of 2 MHz through an optimized RF matching system. An actively water-cooled Faraday shield is located inside the driver region of the ion source for the stable and steady-state operations of high-power RF discharge. Plasma ignition of the ion source is initiated by the injection of argongas without a starter-filament heating, and the argon-gas is then slowly exchanged by the injection of hydrogen-gas to produce pure hydrogen plasmas. The uniformities of the plasma parameter,such as a plasma density and an electron temperature, are measured at the lowest area of the driver region using two RF-compensated electrostatic probes along the direction of the shortand long-dimensions of the driver region. The plasma parameters will be compared with those obtained at the lowest area of the expansion bucket to analyze the plasma expansion properties from the driver region to the expansion region.     

Preliminary Results of Ion Beam Extraction Tests on EAST Neutral Beam Injector

The neutral beam injection (NBI) system is one of the most important auxiliary plasma heating and current driving methods for fusion device. A high power ion beam of 3 MW with 80 keV beam energy in 0.5 s beam duration and a long pulse ion beam of 4 s with 50 keV beam energy ion beam extraction were achieved on the EAST neutral beam injector on the teststand. The preliminary results show that the EAST-NBI system was developed successfully on schedule.     

Experimental Study of Diagnosis Neutral Beam for HT-7 Tokamak

Parametrical effect on plasma discharge and beam extraction in the diagnosis neutral beam （DNB） system for HT-7 tokamak was studied experimentally. Useful results with an improved beam quality were obtained.     

Modular software for MAST multi-technology data acquisition system

The MAST (Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak) data acquisition system is being radically upgraded. New hardware with completely different control interface and logic has been installed on all system levels from front-end devices to plant control. MAST plant control has been moved from VMS to a Windows-based OPC system. Old CAMAC and VME units are being replaced by cPCI and PXI units. A number of CAMAC crates have been upgraded with new Ethernet controllers supporting useful front-end devices.The upgrade is being performed without disturbing operations; the data acquisition units are being replaced gradually. Such an upgrade is possible due to the structure of the MAST data acquisition system which is build as a set of autonomous units, each one controlled by a computer. Modern computers are capable of controlling several units, and this has been the major opportunity and challenge because it radically changes the unit control logic. As a result practically all system components had to be redesigned.The new unit software is a step in system evolution towards greater flexibility and universality. Each unit can now manage multiple data files, possibly with different formats, and many units can be hosted on the same computer. This feature is provided by a message proxy server. Each unit is controlled independently and transparently, exactly like a stand-alone unit. A message interface has been modified for consistent handling of new functions. The unit software supports event-triggered and real-time data acquisition at the system level. New software has been developed for a number of new hardware devices, and the device modules for all usable old devices have been rewritten to operate with the new control interface.The new software allows units to be upgraded even during operations. The system structure and logic provide easy extension. The system as a whole or system design elements could also be used on other fusion facilities.     

Commissioning and first results of the ITER-relevant negative ion beam test facility ELISE

The test facility ELISE which was constructed in the last three years at the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP), Garching, is an important intermediate step of the development of the neutral beam system for ITER. ELISE allows gaining an early experience of the performance and operation of large RF driven sources for negative hydrogen ions and will give an important input for the commissioning and the design of the SPIDER and MITICA test facilities at Padua and the ITER neutral beam system. ELISE has gone recently into operation with first plasma and beam pulses. The experiments aim at the demonstration of an ion beam at the required parameters within 2 years of operation until end of 2014, the end of the service contract with F4E for the establishment and exploitation of ELISE.     

强流脉冲中性源的等离子体发生器电源

本文叙述了强流脉冲中性源等离子体发生器电源的特殊要求,给出了用于7×35cm~2大面积源的灯丝电源和弧流电源的主电路。     

Conceptual Design of Neutral Beam Injection System for EAST

Neutral beam injection (NBI) system with two neutral beam injections will be con- structed on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in two stages for high power auxiliary plasmas heating and non-inductive current drive. Each NBI can deliver 2-4 MW beam power with 50-80 keV beam energy in 10-100 s pulse length. Each elements of the NBI system are presented in this contribution.     

Control System of Neutral Beam Injection on HT-7

Neutral Beam Injection control system (NBICS) is constructed to measure the plasma current, Magnet current, vacuum pressure, cryopump temperature, control water cooling, filament voltage, and power supply， etc. The NBICS, consisting mainly of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) subsystem, data acquisition and processing subsystem and cryopump and vacuum pressure monitoring subsystem, has successfully been used on a NBI device. In this article, the design of NBICS on HT-7 is discussed and each subsystem is described in particular.In addition, some experimental results are reported which are very important data for further research related to the HT-7 tokamak.     

NBI双潘宁离子源参数的静电探针测量

介绍了静电探针在22cm双潘宁离子源中心等离子体参数测量中的应用.测出了探针的伏安特性曲线,由该曲线求出在弧流为200 A时,电子温度约为6.0 eV,密度约为2×1012 cm-3,这对于调整放电控制条件,获得高效率大功率的离子源有重要的参考价值,并且对于今后实现强而且均匀的中性束束流的引出也有着重要意义.     

用于NBI的红外畸变图像修正方法研究

中性束注入(Neutral Beam Injection,NBI)是等离子体辅助加热和维持最有效的手段之一。目前,红外诊断作为一种快速高效的诊断手段,逐渐用于中性束束品质诊断中。在红外诊断装置中,由于红外相机的光轴与靶平面的垂线呈一定夹角,从而导致采集图像的几何畸变。论文利用坐标变换的方法通过计算机编程实现了红外畸变图的校正,为红外成像应用于中性束诊断奠定了基础。     

Update on the ASDEX Upgrade data acquisition and data management environment

It has been a while since it had been reported on the status of ASDEX Upgrade data acquisition (DAQ) and data management environment. An update on changes, expansions, and enhancements applied in the last years will be given.

• The acquired amount of data per shot increased from 4 GiB to 40 GiB in eight years.
• Network, storage, and archive challenges have been managed by stepwise improvements.
• New DAQ techniques have been introduced to replace outdated technologies.
• Real-time diagnostics speed-up data provisioning and contribute to feedback control.

Information technology applied to ASDEX Upgrade is under permanent change. Recent and future steps are outlined.     

Control and acquisition for MAST Thomson scattering diagnostics

The MAST (mega-amp spherical tokamak) Thomson scattering (TS) diagnostics have been radically upgraded and expanded. Eight 30 Hz 1.6 J Nd:YAG lasers have been combined to produce a sampling rate of 240 Hz. The scattered signals are acquired by two spectrometer systems: core and edge. The core system has been built anew: collection optics, polychromators, digitizers, and control computers. It allows measurement of electron temperature and density at 130 spatial points with ∼10 mm resolution across the plasma.The Nd:YAG scattered light signals are registered in 650 channels as polychromator outputs; each channel is registered on two ADCs: at 1 GHz rate in a short interval around each laser pulse and at 100 kHz for background data. The fast ADCs are combined in 26 data acquisition units. Each unit is assembled in a 6 U PXI chassis with embedded controller and six 4-channel 1 GHz ADC cards. Some chassis contain a 96-channel slow ADC card with Ethernet control.The Ruby TS has been rebuilt with a new spectrometer and CCD camera to provide higher spatial resolution - 512 points; the laser has been modified to add double pulse capability.A new control and acquisition system has been developed; it has modular design allowing flexibility and seamless expansion. The system supports event-triggered and real-time operation (will be added in a later stage).A smart trigger device has been developed for TS timing and synchronisation. It provides complex pulse sequences for laser firing with resynchronisation on a number of digital and analogue inputs including plasma events. This device also triggers TS acquisition.The system is integrated by a TS master process running on the dedicated computer; it is represented as a standard MAST data acquisition unit. The Ruby TS is also implemented as a standard MAST unit linked with the Nd:YAG TS by MAST system services.     

Design and implementation of data acquisition system for magnets of SST-1

The magnet system of the Steady-State Superconducting Tokamak-1 at the Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, India, consists of sixteen toroidal field and nine poloidal field. Superconducting coils together with a pair of resistive PF coils, an air core ohmic transformer and a pair of vertical field coils. These magnets are instrumented with various cryogenic compatible sensors and voltage taps for its monitoring, operation, protection, and control during different machine operational scenarios like cryogenic cool down, current charging cycles including ramp up, flat top, plasma breakdown, dumping/ramp down and warm up. The data acquisition system for these magnet instrumentation have stringent requirement regarding operational flexibility, reliability for continuous long term operation and data visualization during operations. A VME hardware based data acquisition system with ethernet based remote system architecture is implemented for data acquisition and control of the complete magnet operation. Software application is developed in three parts namely an embedded VME target, a network server and a remote client applications. A target board application implemented with real time operating system takes care of hardware configuration and raw data transmission to server application. A java server application manages several activities mainly multiple client communication over ethernet, database interface and data storage. A java based platform independent desktop client application is developed for online and offline data visualization, remote hard ware configuration and many other user interface tasks. The application has two modes of operation to cater to different needs of cool-down and charging operations. This paper describes application architecture, installation and commissioning and operational experience from the recent campaigns of SST-1.     

The Power Supply System of Ion Source for NBI

The power supply system of ion source for the Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) in the HT-7 superconducting tokamak is based on a single injector with one ion source that can deliver 700 kW of neutral beam power. Experiments and a discharges test on the ion source were successfully performed. In this paper, the circuit structures and features of every power supply are described and the results of the discharges test are presented.     

Design of a cooling system for the ITER Ion Source and Neutral Beam test facilities

This paper deals with the requirements, operational modes and design of the cooling system for the ITER Neutral Beam test experiments. Different operating conditions of the experiments have been considered in order to identify the maximum heat loads that constitute, with the inlet temperature and pressure at each component, the design requirements for the cooling system.The test facility components will be actively cooled by ultrapure water realizing a closed cooling loop for each group of components. Electrochemical corrosion issues have been taken into account for the design of the primary cooling loops and of the chemical and volume control system that will produce water with controlled resistivity and pH. Draining and drying systems have been designed to evacuate water from the components and primary loops in case of leakage, and to carry out leak detection.Tritium concentration, water resistivity and pH will be measured and monitored at each primary loop for safety reasons and high voltage holding reliability. The measured water flow rates and temperatures will be used to calculate the exchanged heat fluxes and powers. Flow regulating valves and speed of variable driven pumps will be adjusted to control the component temperatures in order to fulfil the functional and thermohydraulic requirements.