Improvement of voltage holding capability in the 500 keV negative ion source for JT-60SA

Voltage holding capability of JT-60 negative ion source that has a large electrostatic negative ion accelerator with 45 cm×1.1 m acceleration grids was experimentally examined and improved to realize 500 keV, 22 A, and 100 s D− ion beams for JT-60 Super Advanced. The gap lengths in the acceleration stages were extended to reduce electric fields in a gap between the large grids and at the corner of the support flanges from the original 4–5 to 3–4 kV/mm. As a result, the voltage holding capability without beam acceleration has been successfully improved from 400 to 500 kV. The pulse duration to hold 500 kV reached 40 s of the power supply limitation.