26 research outputs found
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First Wall Coatings
As impurity problems become more significant, the selection of a suitable first wall material becomes more important. Many of the candidates are impractical either because they are difficult to fabricate or do not possess adequate strength. An alternate solution is a composite wall consisting of a suitable coating on a substrate chosen for its strength and ease of fabrication. Various techniques have been investigated for depositing a variety of candidate materials onto 304 L stainless steel. Thick coatings of several of these materials have been satisfactorily deposited utilizing ion plating. This technique is described in some detail. (auth
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Impurity and Recycling Control with Gettering in ATF
The vacuum vessel of the Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF) is Ti-gettered with a surface coverage of 70%. The major effects of gettering are: (1) reduction of the oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen content in the plasma and (2) improved density control due to wall pumping of the working gas hydrogen. The overall leak rate in ATF is 2{times}10{sup {minus}4} Torr-l/s which is too high for successful plasma operation. Ti-gettering is routinely employed every morning prior to operation and compensates for this shortcoming by reducing the partial pressure of nitrogen and other residual gas components to the low 10{sup {minus}9} Torr range which is close to the RGA background pressure. Rate-of-rise measurements at this stage show only argon and some methane. The argon is used to monitor the leak rate. In addition to impurity reduction, gettering leads to low recycling of the working gas which appears to be crucial for density control in ATF. The capacity of the gettered surface is large enough to show a strong effect even after 24 hours. An extensive data base on the short-term and long-term effects of gettering on the residual gas composition and its effects on plasma performance has been established over the past three years and will be discussed in this paper. 9 refs., 7 figs
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Studies of chromium gettering
Preliminary results have shown that hydrogen pumping by chromium is a surface effect. Unlike with titanium, the getter material used in many present day tokamaks, there is no significant diffusion into the bulk. Additional experiments have been carried out to measure the basic characteristics of chromium films for gases of interest in tokamak research. These gases include deuterium, oxygen and nitrogen. A vacuum system is described which allowed precise control of the test gas, a constant wall temperature and determination of the projected getter surface area. A quadrupole mass spectrometer, rather than simply a total pressure gauge, was utilized to measure the partial pressure of the test gas as well as the residual gas composition in the system. A quartz crystal monitor was used to measure film thickness. Pumping speeds and sticking coefficients are given as a function of surface coverage for each test gas. A comparison will be made with titanium films deposited in the same vacuum system and under similar conditions
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Fabrication of High Rate Chromium Getter Sources for Fusion Applications
Design and fabrication techniques are described for the manufacture of large-capacity chromium getter sources, analogous to the commercially available titanium getter source known as Ti-Ball, manufactured by Varian Associates
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Control of Water Absorption by Purification of Graphite
It is well known that graphite can absorb large quantities of water, which can represent an abundant source of oxygen impurities in fusion plasmas if the corresponding components are not properly outgassed. We have outgassed various fusion-relevant graphites (e.g., POCO AXF-5Q) for 1.5 h at 1500/degree/C to release absorbed water and have subsequently exposed the samples to air for various periods of time. Re-absorption of water during the air exposure was estimated by measuring the amount of water produced in subsequent outgassing runs. The results show that the amount of water re-absorbed increases by a factor of approximately 10 within 8 h compared to the sample in the outgassed state but with no air exposure. The water content of the 'as received' material is reached after approximately 30 days. Re-absorption of water was significantly reduced by purification of the investigated graphite samples. This purification process, which consists of heating the sample at 2800/degree/C for 30 min in an argon atmosphere, reduces the levels of trace impurities which can be responsible for catalytic surface reactions on the internal surfaces of the graphite. After exposing an outgassed sample to an electron cyclotron heated plasma followed by 1 h air exposure, the amount of water desorbed was observed to increase by a factor of 6. Data will be presented to correlate this effect with trace impurities. 9 refs., 2 figs., 5 tabs
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Long-term Changes in the Sensitivity of Quadrupole Mass Spectrometers
We routinely use quadrupole mass spectrometers (QMS) to monitor vacuum conditions, gas purity, and plasma-wall interactions in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) at Princeton. Two QMS systems have been operating on TFTR continuously for a two-year period. Both QMS systems are absolutely calibrated at weekly intervals using a six-part standard gas mixture. The calibration procedure is based on the use of transfer standards (ion gauge and capacitance manometer) that are calibrated against a primary standard (spinning rotor gauge) on an external vacuum system. We have identified variations in the efficiency of the QMS ionizer and drifts in the sensitivity of the electron multiplier ion detector to be the major reasons for the observed changes in overall OMS sensitivity. Weekly variations in sensitivity greater than 100% have been observed following system bakeout at 150/sup 0/C and with the use of rhenium filaments which were initially in the QMS ionizer. Operation of the QMS systems with tungsten filaments and at constant temperature has yielded more stable operation with weekly sensitivity changes generally being less than 10%. 7 refs., 7 figs
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Energetic Particle Induced Desorption of Water Vapor Cryo-Condensate
An in-vessel cryo-condensation pump is being designed for the Advanced Divertor configuration of the DIII-D tokamak. To assess the importance of possible desorption of water vapor from the cryogenic surfaces of the pump due to impingement of energetic particles from the plasma, a 77 K surface on which a thin layer of water vapor was condensed was exposed to a tenuous plasma (density = 2 {times} 10{sup 10} cm{sup {minus}3}, electron temperature = 3 eV). Significant desorption of the condensate occurred, suggesting that impingement of energeticparticles (10 eV) at flux levels of {approximately}10{sup 16} cm{sup 2}s{sup {minus}1} on cryogenic surfaces could potentially induce impurity problems in the tokamak plasma. A pumping configuration is presented in which this problem is minimized without sacrificing the pumping speed