Tritium projectiles for fueling magnetic fusion plasmas

As part of the International Thermonuclear Engineering Reactor (ITER) plasma fueling development program, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has fabricated a pellet (cylindrical projectile of frozen hydrogenic gas at a temperature in the range 6--16 K) injection system to test the mechanical and thermal properties of extruded tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. This repeating, single-stage, pneumatic injector, called the Tritium-Proof-of-Principle Phase 2 (TPOP-2) Pellet Injector, has a piston-driven mechanical extruder and is designed to extrude and accelerate hydrogenic pellets sized for the ITER device. The TPOP-2 program has the following development goals: evaluate the feasibility of extruding tritium and deuterium-tritium (D-T) mixtures for use in future pellet injection systems; determine the mechanical and thermal properties of tritium and D-T extrusions; integrate, test, and evaluate the extruder in a repeating, single-stage light gas gun that is sized for the ITER application (pellet diameter {approximately} 7 to 8 mm); evaluate options for recycling propellant and extruder exhaust gas; evaluate operability and reliability of ITER prototypical fueling systems in an environment of significant tritium inventory that requires secondary and room containment systems. In initial tests with deuterium feed at ORNL, up to 13 pellets have been extruded at rates up to 1 Hz and accelerated to speeds of 1.0 to 1.1 km/s, using hydrogen propellant gas at a supply pressure of 65 bar. The pellets, typically 7.4 mm in diameter and up to 11 mm in length, are the largest cryogenic pellets produced by the fusion program to date. These pellets represent about a 11% density perturbation to ITER. Hydrogenic pellets will be used in ITER to sustain the fusion power in the plasma core and may be crucial in reducing first-wall tritium inventories by a process called isotopic fueling in which tritium-rich pellets fuel the burning plasma core and deuterium gas fuels the edge