Analysis on acceleration of DT-mixed ion beams in a negative ion accelerator for a DT-mixed Neutral Beam Injector

Abstract In order to reduce the tritium inventory in a fuel circulation system in fusion plants, a possibility of deuterium-tritium (DT) mixed neutral beam injectors with DT negative ion beams has been investigated by analyzing the beam optics of the DT-mixed negative ion beams for the first time. In a two-dimensional beam analysis, DT-mixed ion beams could be accelerated regardless of the DT current mixing ratio (T/D) from the identical acceleration geometry with the identical applied voltages by adjusting total space charge for the D and T components. However, in a three-dimensional beam analysis including magnetic fields, the DT-mixed ion beams were separated due to a mass dependence of the beam deflection by orthogonal magnetic fields of an electron suppression and transverse filter fields for negative ion production. In the case of the beamline for ITER, which requires beam deflection angle within ±1 mrad, the operational range for the DT-mixed ion beams was found to be the DT current mixing ratio of 0.7-1.5 and beam energy of 0.9-1.0 MeV. Although the operational range was not wide, the DT-mixed beam was found to be feasible in terms of the beam acceleration. These analyses also contribute to the study of the acceleration of other mixed ion beams such as impurity or heavy ions, which are useful techniques for diagnostic beams.