The Sandia Plasma Materials Test Facility in 2007

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Abstract

The Plasma Materials Test Facility, in its third decade of operation at Sandia National Laboratories, upgraded the 30-kW system to 60 kW (EB60) with a new gun, grid control and power supply. In 2007 we are testing mockups in EB60 to assess processes for joining Be to CuCrZr and CuCrZr to 316LN-IG for the fabrication of US first wall (FW) panels for ITER. In our 1.2 MW dual gun electron beam, EB1200, we will test Be-armored FW quality mockups of the US and other ITER Parties.

Introduction

The Fusion Technology Department of Sandia National Laboratories1 in Albuquerque, NM, operates PMTF (Plasma Materials Test Facility), a US Dept. of Energy (DOE) User Facility. In 2007, we replaced our 30-kW electron beam (e-beam), EBTS [1], with EB60 (Fig. 1) a 60-kW system. The larger EB1200 (Fig. 2) has two beams and 1.2 MW total power. PMTF's auxiliary systems include (1) a high-temperature, high-pressure water cooling loop that supplies high quality (de-ionized and de-mineralized) coolant water at flow rates to 30 l/s, pressures as high as 7 MPa, and inlet temperatures to 280 °C, (2) a closed helium coolant loop for testing of helium-cooled components and heat exchangers coupled to EB60, (3) a liquid metal loop, and (4) a fully equipped computer laboratory for diagnostics, control and analytical support of our experiments.

Most testing in PMTF is on specimens of armor tiles joined to actively cooled heat sinks for plasma facing components (PFCs) for the magnetic fusion program funded by the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Science. Typical heat loads are in the range of 0.5–2 MW/m2 for first wall elements and 10–15 MW/m2 for PFCs with high heat loads such as divertors and limiters. Much higher heat fluxes are also possible. Our collaborations also include applications such as microwave gyrotron cavities and beam dumps. We collaborate with industry, as for example in the development of e-beam physical vapor deposition processes, and testing performed under the Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research Program to investigate innovative heat transfer technologies for fusion and commercial applications.

Beryllium (Be) is a material of interest for armor tiles in ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) and JET (Joint European Torus). Due to the toxicity of airborne particles of Be, special handling and facilities are needed, and PMTF has the capability to test Be-armored targets in both EB60 and EB1200.

Currently most research using PMTF supports the ITER Project. The US will provide 20% of the first wall and will also test first wall mockups for several other ITER Parties [2]. This work continues a tradition of international collaborations that has included the development of PFCs for TEXTOR, Tore Supra, JET and KSTAR [3], [4], [5], [6] as well as work with foreign partners on the development of advanced actively cooled PFCs for future fusion reactors.

Section snippets

Testing in PMTF

Tests in PMTF falls into the seven broad categories below.

EB60

EB60 is a multi-purpose device for studying the surface modification, thermal response and failure modes of high heat flux materials and components. Table 1 lists parameters. The target chamber 0.6 m diameter × 1 m long has various ports for diagnostics and utility connections. A hinged door at one end provides easy access for handling targets up to 0.3 m × 0.6 m. In the gun, a tungsten filament heats a LaB6 button. Two magnetic lenses and a deflection yoke focus, position and raster the beam. We can

The EB1200

EB1200 was built in the late 1980s to test PFCs for ITER and for the Tokamak Physics Experiment. Table 2 lists parameters. The ∼3 m3 D-shaped vacuum chamber has over 50 ports for diagnostics and views of the target and four 3000 l/s commercial cryopumps. Four beam dumps, behind the targets, are designed to survive a heat flux of 20 MW/m2. The meter-wide door on EB1200 has plumbing for multiple targets and feed-throughs for various diagnostics. The examples below show how the independent patterns

PMTF coolant loops

The high-pressure, high-temperature flow loop provides high-quality, high-temperature, pressurized water to targets in EB60 and EB1200 and has all stainless steel piping designed to American National Standards Institute standards for power plants for pressures to 6.9 MPa. A 225 kW in-line electric water heater provides for fast heating of the loop. Using the PMTF computer system, operators have full control of pressure (0.1–7.0 MPa, 15–1000 psi), flow (3–30 l/s, 50–500 gpm) and temperature. Water up

Diagnostics, analysis and control

Extensive diagnostics in PMTF include video and infrared (IR) cameras, optical and IR pyrometers, thermocouples (TCs) embedded in samples, strain gauges when appropriate, and residual gas analyzers. Table 3 lists the diagnostics; where the numbers of channels differ for EB60 and EB1200, these are given in parentheses. We observe and record the video and IR data for all tests in EB60 and EB1200 and use the frame-by-frame playback as needed to evaluate these data. An array of optical and IR

Acknowledgments

The following people helped develop PMTF but are no longer in the Fusion Technology Department: J.B. Whitley, C.D. Croessmann, W.B. Gauster, R.T. McGrath, R.D. Watson, P.D. Rockett, J.A. Hunter and N.B. Gilbertson.

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