Experience at JET relating to the first production of tritium neutral beams for D-T tokamak experiments

Abstract

The highest fusion yield plasmas in JET are obtained using neutral beam injection to inject energetic beams of deuterium into low density target plasmas which are generated in single or double-null X-point magnetic configurations. Extrapolation of the measured performance of these hot-ion H-mode plasmas in deuterium to that to be expected using a D-T fuel mixture showed that significant power (/spl sim/MW) would be released from controlled thermo-nuclear fusion reactions even if the tritium concentration was less than the optimum value of 50%. We describe the major technological developments which were carried out to enable the first multi-ampere beams of tritium, essential for the successful outcome of the First Tritium Experiment, to be produced and injected into the JET tokamak.