Long pulse and high power density H− ion beam acceleration for ITER

A high power density and a long pulse negative ion beam accelerator has been developed in QST to realize the ITER neutral beam accelerator. A main target was the H− ion beam acceleration up to 1 MeV with 200 A/m2 for 60 s. After the achievement of 1 MeV at a short pulse, the pulse length has been gradually extended by modifications of grid configurations to suppress grid heat loads due to negative ions and electrons. However, the beam energy was limited up to 0.7 MeV at 60 s operation. One issue was an unstable negative ion production for a long time due to arcing and excess temperature rise of a plasma grid for optimum negative ion production. To suppress arcing, a cathode filament shape was modified. The plasma grid was modified to have a large heat capacitance in order to suppress temperature rise for 60 s operation at high discharge power required for 1 MeV operation. Another issue is to optimize beam optics more precisely. Fine tuning of the 1st acceleration stage was carried to improve beam optics f...