The Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) teams of ASIPP and General Atomics (GA) began their cooperation, with GA sending Dr. Ruey-Maw Hong and Ms. Bonnie Gaye Scoville to visit ASIPP on July 4 for 10 days.
At present, EAST-NBI division is undertaking the construction of a 4MW, 50-80keV long pulse neutral beam injection system for EAST; it is a part of EAST auxiliary heating system project, a national scientific project approved last year by National Development and Reform Commission. At the end of last year, this division has made their First MW High-current positive Ion Source.
To ensure the project running smoothly, Prof. Hu Chundong, head of EAST-NBI division, invited these two GA experts to ASIPP. Dr. Hong first gave a report named “Introduction to Neutral Beam Ion Source Operation”, then discussed with NBI members on the construction of neutral beam injection. At the desire of EAST-NBI team, the experts gave many pertinent suggestions on the fields of R&D of ion source, high-voltage power supply, high-voltage snubber, etc. Taking into account the commissioning of EAST-NBI project, Dr. Hong made some professional advice on how to set parameters properly to save commissioning test time, how to obtain long pulse operation as well as how to protect NBI components and operators.
Dr. Hong said this 10-day visit was his first time NBI trip to ASIPP, but not the last one. Before leaving, the host and guests all expressed their wishes to cooperate deeply in the near future. NBI is expected to be a new hot exchange area in the coming years in GA-ASIPP cooperation, which has been centered on plasma control, divertor, theory, etc.