Frozen pellets reach speeds of 3,600 kph on test bench for the ITER fusion reactor

In tokamak reactors, plasma instability is countered by injecting frozen gas pellets at high speed. The plasma temperature is rapidly decreased, mitigating disruptions and protecting the reactor walls and structure.
Pellet injection works well on conventional fusion reactors. But the ITER reactor uses higher-energy plasmas that require a different approach. Researchers at Irig have developed a 1:1 scale test bench to help address this challenge.
The Irig-designed test bench produces frozen pellets measuring 10 mm to 30 mm in diameter and strong enough to withstand high-speed injection—with acceleration of up to 1 km per second—into the reactor. The pellets also have to be produced in under 30 minutes to ensure that there are always enough on hand.
Experiments are currently being carried out to determine the exact parameters for ITER.

Contact: francois.millet@cea.fr

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