FEEDTHROUGH FOR FUSION LAUNCHER SYSTEMS

PRESENT ICRF EXPERIMENTS, NEAR TERM PLANNED EXPERIMENTS SUCH AS TFTR AND DOUBLET III, AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGINEERING TEST REACTOR (ETR) AND THE FUSION DEMONSTRATION PLANT (FDP) ALL EITHER EXHIBIT OR FORESEE VOLTAGE BREAKDOWN PROBLEMS, POWER HANDLING LIMITATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESTRICTIONS FOR THE COAXIAL VACUUM FEEDTHROUGHS. MICROWAVE TECHNIQUES SHALL INVESTIGATE VIA BREAD-BOARD AND PROTOTYPE-FOR-TEST MODELS THE VIABILITY OF A NONLINEAR MATHEMATICALLY DEFINABLE BDC TAPER DESIGN OF THE CERAMIC WINDOW ELEMENT TO COUNTERACT BREAKDOWN DUE TO THE MIS-MATCHES FROM THE PLASMA HEATING BY ICRF. THE PROTOTYPES WILL BE MODELED IN 3-1/8" COAXIAL LINE, PROVIDING FEASIBILITY OF PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS WHICH CAN BE USED FOR SCALING TO 9-3/16" OR LARGER SIZES FOR PHASE II DEVELOPMENT AND TEST AT HIGHER POWER LEVELS. A TRAVELING WAVE RESONATOR (TWR) WOULD BE BUILT IN PHASE II FOR TESTING REACTIONS OF THE COMPONENT TO SIMULATED CONDITIONS OF 10 MW AVERAGE POWER (NEAR-SIMULTANEOUS INTRODUCTION OF VOLTAGE AND CURRENT). CONTROLLED COOLING AND VACUUM INTEGRITY WILL BE ADVANCED BY OUR DESIGN TO THOSE METHODS NOW GENERALLY EMPLOYED. PROJECTED AFFECTS OF THE STRONG MAGNETIC FIELDS AND THE RADIATION ENVIRONMENT ON BOTH MATERIALS AND THE RF FIELD WILL BE ANALYZED FOR APPLICABLE DESIGN CRITERIA DURING PHASE II. PROJECTED RESULTS ARE A REALIZATION OF THE FEASIBILITY FOR A VACUUM FEEDTHROUGH DESIGN FOR 30 TO 100 MHZ, OPERATING TO 10 MW AVERAGE POWER, DELIVERING 3 KW/CM(2) OF POWER INTO A 10:1 MISMATCH CONDITION.