Wall conditions on HL-2A and HL-3 tokamaks

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nme.2024.101852
• Publication Date: 2024-12-20T00:18:54Z
• Authors: Chengzhi Cao; Xiangmei Huang; Yi Hu; Yanfeng Xie; Jun Zhou; Tao Qiao; Jinming Gao; Laizhong Cai; Zeng Cao
• Keywords: Wall conditioning; TK9001-9401; Siliconization; Nuclear engineering. Atomic power; HL-2A and HL-3; Radio frequency assisted cleaning

This paper presents the wall conditioning of HL-2A and HL-3 tokamaks. It details the enhancement of plasma performance achieved through siliconization processes on the HL-2A tokamak, encompassing both offline and in-situ methodologies. A study on the impact of offline siliconization on impurity concentration within HL-2A is presented, and real-time siliconization results demonstrate that it has no effect on plasma discharge. The findings indicate that in-situ siliconization is equally effective as the offline process with regard to plasma performance. With appropriate 13.56 MHz radio frequency (RF) power and pressure, a uniform glow discharge was achieved under 0.1 T in HL-2A. The effectiveness of impurity removal on HL-3 at different baking temperatures has been investigated. Measurements of glow discharge plasma density and temperature reveal that the parameters farthest from the electrode are 6 eV and ∼ 8 × 1012 m−3. Based on the breakdown tests, it was determined that the minimum breakdown voltage is approximate 430 V, and the lowest breakdown pressure is around 2.1 × 10-2 Pa when using 2.1 MHz RF power. Furthermore, experiments were conducted to investigate the efficiency of radio frequency assisted glow discharge cleaning for impurity removal. The study also evaluated the effectiveness of various methods for removing impurities. Additionally, siliconization on HL-3 was implemented successfully with determination of all key control parameters.