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SPIDER is the 100 keV full-size Ion Source prototype of the ITER Neutral Beam Injectors and it is operating at Consorzio RFX in Padova, Italy. After one and half year experiment, necessity of increase the vessel vacuum level has been recognized, in order to overcome some limitations to the operative limits and fulfill the full experiment performance. The existing vacuum system is based on standard forevacuum, turbomolecular and cryogenic pumps. The upgrade of the vacuum pumping system is based on the addition of Non Evaporable Getter (NEG) pump, composed by 512 cartridges. The NEG are arranged in 16 x 32 modules and will be housed in an extension module of the existing SPIDER vacuum vessel. Each NEG cartridge requires to be heated up to 600°C to regenerate the getter material for 72 hours by electrical heaters (180 kW, total power). Thus, an active cooling system is necessary to protect the SPIDER components and VV from excessive heat during the regeneration process by means of copper thermal shields and cooling channels. This paper deals about the design and sizing of the dedicated cooling system.

To reach fusion conditions and control the plasma configuration in ITER, the next step in tokamak fusion research, two neutral beam injectors (NBIs) will supply 17MW each, by neutralizing accelerated negative hydrogen or deuterium ions. The requirements of ITER NBIs (40A/1MeV D- ions for

The negative-ion beam source SPIDER, which is the full-scale prototype source for the ITER neutral beam injector, recently started the operation with caesium. This experimental phase follows three years of volume operation, devoted to the commissioning of the plants and to the integrated test of the ion source and accelerator. The ion source, composed of eight RF drivers connected to a large plasma chamber from which the negative ions are extracted, was operated up to a RF power of 400kW, and beam energy up to 50kV, and plasma discharges limited to less than one minute This contribution will describe the main results of the first campaign with caesium in SPIDER. The repetition of short plasma and beam extraction blips with different injection rates was applied, to study the effect on plasma and beam parameters. The caesiation procedure adopted in SPIDER will be described (caesium injection rate, duty cycle of plasma-on, RF power, source gas pressure) together with the effects of the source parameters on the extracted beam and its uniformity. Even though the use of a much reduced number of beamlets was a strong limitation in terms of total accelerated current (a mask at the plasma grid covered 1252 apertures over 1280 to limit the gas load to the vacuum pumps), it provided advantages in the study of the caesium effect on the beam, such as the introduction of dedicated diagnostics for the single beamlets, and the identification of the beamlet current and optics.

The Acceleration Grid Power Supply (AGPS) has been procured by ITER-India for the SPIDER experiment hosted in the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) in Padua, Italy. SPIDER is the prototype of the negative ion source of the ITER Heating Neutral Beam Injectors. The AGPS is devoted to feed the electrostatic accelerator of SPIDER with a dc voltage down to -96 kV, a maximum current of 75 A and a maximum pulse duration of 1 hour. Realized with Pulse Step Modulation technology, its main components are: three oil-insulated multi-secondary transformers fed by the 22 kV ac distribution network, 150 series-connected water-cooled switched power modules based on IGBTs, an output inductor, and a Control and Protection System. The AGPS has been commissioned at NBTF site on dummy load in 2018, reaching the full voltage. Then, ITER Organization (IO) accepted the system and transferred the Responsibility of Use to Consorzio RFX in 2019, in order to start the SPIDER operation with beam acceleration. However, it was not allowed to exceed the acceleration voltage of 30 kV, corresponding to the voltage ratings of the output cable and load disconnectors. In 2020, these components were replaced by new ones, with full voltage ratings. For space constraints, the number of disconnectors were reduced, accepting some compromise on the flexibility in operation. Then, in 2021 the asseveration for an output voltage down to -96 kV has been achieved, and the first SPIDER experimental campaigns with high acceleration voltage started. While at the beginning the beam current was very limited, it increased during the year with the use of Cesium in the ion source, which caused a substantial improvement of negative ion's production. During the operations, some relevant aspects of the AGPS for which an upgrade could be beneficial have been identified, for example the voltage regulation and ripple in no-load conditions, the voltage regulation range, and some control functions. This paper describes the process and the technical solutions which allowed achieving the asseveration to operate the AGPS at full voltage, reports the first experimental results and discusses the advisable improvements which have been identified.

This paper gives an overview of the progress of the Neutral Beam Test Facility realization, including the experimental status of SPIDER.

This document shows the status of PRIMA, MITICA and SPIDER CAD integration (buildings, power supplies, auxiliary service plants and experiments components ).The CAD model is also used at RFX as a tool to ve rify and manage the interfaces of PRIMA, MITICA and SPID ER experiments, power supplies and auxiliary systems.

The ITER Heating Neutral Beam (HNB) injectors, one of the tools necessary both to achieve burning conditions and to control plasma instabilities, are characterized by such demanding parameters as to require the construction of a Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) dedicated to their development and optimization. The NBTF was realized in Padua (Italy), with the direct contribution of the Italian government, through the Consorzio RFX as the host entity, IO, the in kind contributions of three Domestic Agencies (F4E, JADA, INDA) and the technical and scientific support of various European laboratories and universities. The NBTF hosts two experiments: SPIDER and MITICA. The former is devoted to the optimization of the HNB and DNB ion sources and to the achievement of the required source performances. MITICA is the full size prototype of the ITER HNB, with an ion source identical to the one used in SPIDER. This paper gives an overview of the progress of the NBTF realization with particular emphasis on issues discovered during this phase of activities and to the adopted solutions in order to minimize the impact on the schedule while maintaining the goals of the facilities. The realization of MITICA is well advanced; it is expected to enter into operation in 2023 due to the long procurement times of the in-vessel mechanical components. The power supply designed to operate at 1MV are in an advanced phase of realization; all the high voltage components have been installed and the complex insulation test phase has begun in 2018. The construction and installation of SPIDER plant systems was successfully completed with their integration into the facility. The mechanical components of the ion source were installed inside the vessel and connected to the plants. The integrated commissioning with control (CODAS), protection and safety systems ended positively and the first experimental phase began. Finally, the first results of the SPIDER experimentation and of the 1MV insulation tests on the MITICA high voltage components are presented.

This document describes the Operating Structure and the way in which SPIDER will be operated considering that SPIDER operations will start after the conclusion of the so called integrated commissioning phase. The Operational Manual is a master management document and therefore it does not contain all the operative instructions, check lists and procedures to be used during the SPIDER operation: those documents, available on site once issued, will be prepared and upgraded considering also the outcomes of the Plant Units commissioning and the experience gained during the integrated commissioning. Concerning the SPIDER operational limits, this document deals with how they will be managed during operations: in particular, differences and correlations between Plant Units and SPIDER operational limits will be considered being the former those contained in the Instructions and Maintenance Manual which is part of the Plant Units/Items formal documentation (formally delivered to Consorzio RFX with the Transfer for Use).

This document gives a description of activities performed by NBTF Team under WP2016.

This document is the test plan for the SPIDER commissioning campaign s S - C1 - C addressing the remote control mode of SPIDER and Shared Gas and Vacuum System under SPIDER CODAS and central interlock system.

The Neutral Beam Test Facility [1] is under construction in Padova, Italy with the aim of developing and testing the technologies needed to meet the advanced requirements of the ITER heating neutral beam injectors (HNBs). It includes two experiments, namely SPIDER, the fullsize ITER HNB ion source experiment, and MITICA the prototype of the ITER HNB. The construction of SPIDER is near to completion. SPIDER instrumentation and control (I&C) is classically organized in three tiers - conventional control, investment protection (interlock), and personnel safety - and three layers - central, plant system, and plant unit. Conventional control and the interlock systems have been already developed and tested and are ready to undergo the integrated commissioning along with important operation plant units such as the power supply, gas and vacuum, and cooling systems. Conventional control integrates a set of standard software frameworks [2]. It supports all functions that are typical of long-lasting fusion experiments, such as real-time control, event driven data acquisition, and data streaming. The interlock system provides fast (< 10 s reaction time) and slow (< 20 ms reaction time) protection functions. The safety system is under development and will include a set of safety-related functions associated with specific Safety Integrity Levels according to IEC 61508. The paper will present the architecture of the three-tier I&C system with reference to system requirements, technical solution proposed and issues found in the system development. In detail, the implementation of the interlock and safety tiers will be discussed with reference to the requirements set by ITER in the plant control design handbook. Finally, the SPIDER I&C example will be discussed with the perspective of the evolution towards the MITICA I&C for which the ITER constraints are stringent.

This document describes the design of the High Voltage Radio Frequency Test Facility (HVRFTF) to experimentally verify the insulation design of the ion source RF circuits adopted for SPIDER. Starting from the geometry and the operating condition of the ion source of SPIDER the requirements for HVRFTF are derived. Then the detailed description of the design of all the HVRFTF systems is reported. The design verifications are finally presented.

This document reports about the effects of delayed delivery of SPIDER electron dump and AGPS on SPIDER overall commissioning and operations.

T1/D3.4 Q4 activity Report

Heating neutral beam (HNB) injectors, necessary to achieve burning conditions and to control plasma instabilities in ITER, are characterized by such demanding parameters that a neutral beam test facility (NBTF) dedicated to their development and optimization is being realized in Padua (Italy) with direct contributions from the Italian government (through Consorzio RFX as the host entity) and the ITER international organization (with kind contributions from the ITER domestic agencies of Europe, Japan and India) and technical and scientific support from various European laboratories and universities. The NBTF hosts two experiments: SPIDER, devoted to ion source optimization for the required source performance, and MITICA, the full-size prototype of the ITER HNB, with an ion source identical to SPIDER. This paper gives an overview of the progress towards NBTF realization, with particular emphasis on issues discovered during this phase of activity and on solutions adopted to minimize the impact on the schedule and maintain the goals of the facilities. The realization of MITICA is well advanced; operation is expected to start in 2023 due to the long procurement time of the in-vessel mechanical components. The beam source power supplies, operating at 1 MV, are in an advanced phase of realization; all high-voltage components have been installed and the complex insulation test phase began in 2018. At the same time, construction and installation of SPIDER plant systems was successfully completed with their integration into the facility. The mechanical components of the SPIDER ion source were installed inside the vessel and connected to the plants. Integrated commissioning with the control, protection and safety systems ended positively and the first experimental phase has begun. The first results of the SPIDER experiment, with data from operational diagnostics, and the plans for the 1 MV insulation tests on the MITICA high-voltage components are presented.

ITER envisages the use of two heating neutral beam injectors plus an optional one as part of the auxiliary heating and current drive system, to reach the desired performances during its various phases of operation. The 16.5 MW expected neutral beam power per injector is several notches higher than worldwide existing facilities.In order to enable such development, a Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) was established at Consorzio RFX, exploiting the synergy of two test beds, called SPIDER and MITICA. SPIDER is dedicated developing and char-acterizing large efficient negative ion sources at relevant parameters in ITER-like conditions: source and accel-erator located in the same vacuum where the beam propagates, immunity to electromagnetic interferences of multiple radio-frequency (RF) antennas, avoidance of RF-induced discharges on the outside of the source. Three years of experiments on SPIDER have addressed to the necessary design modifications to enable full perfor-mances. The source is presently under a long shut-down phase to incorporate learnings from the experimental campaign, in particular events/issues occurred during operation, which led to the identification of improvement opportunities/necessities (e.g. RF discharges, local burns, water leaks, other damages, configuration/design upgrades to maximize chances/margin to quest target parameters).Parallelly, developments on MITICA, the full-scale prototype of the ITER Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) featuring a 1 MV accelerator and ion neutralization, are underway including manufacturing of the beam source, accel-erator and the beam line components, while power supplies and auxiliary plants, already installed, are under final testing and commissioning.Integration, commissioning and tests of the 1 MV power supplies are essential for this first-of-kind system, unparalleled both in research and industry field. 1.2 MV dc insulating tests of high voltage components were successfully completed. The integrated test to confirm 1 MV output by combining invertor systems, DC gener-ators and transmission lines extracted errors/accidents in some components. To realize a concrete system for ITER, said events have been addressed and solutions for the repair and the improvement of the system were developed.Hence, NBTF is emerging as a necessary facility, due to the large gap with existing injectors, effectively dedicated to identify issues and find solutions to enable successful ITER NBI operations in a time bound fashion. The lessons learned during the implementation on NBTF and future perspectives are here discussed.

The realization of the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) and the start the experimental phase are important tasks of the fusion roadmap, since the target requirements of injecting to the plasma a beam of Deuterium atoms with a power up to 16.5 MW, at 1MeV of energy and with a pulse length up to 3600s have never been reached together before. The ITER NBTF, called PRIMA (Padova Research on ITER Megavolt Accelerator), is hosted in Padova, Italy; it includes two experiments: MITICA, the full-scale prototype of the ITER injector and SPIDER, the full-size negative ion source. The realization promoted by the ITER organization is carried out with the contribution of the European Union, channeled through the Joint Undertaking for ITER (F4E), of the Consorzio RFX which hosts the Test Facility, the Japanese and the Indian ITER Domestic Agencies (JADA and INDA) and several European laboratories, such as IPP-Garching, KIT-Karlsruhe, CCFECulham, CEA-Cadarache. The early start of operation of PRIMA experiments is urgent because sufficient experimental time is necessary to face and solve the issues related to the achievement of the desired performance in time for the ITER operation, requiring NBI since the beginning. Substantial progresses have been recently achieved: the buildings construction, begun in October 2012, has been completed by the end of 2015 and the installation of some components has been started since the end of 2014. The SPIDER realization is well advanced: the installation phase is proceeding in good agreement with the general plan; it is expected to be almost completed by the end of 2016. In parallel, the commissioning of the SPIDER power supply (PS) and auxiliary plant systems is being proceeding. Tests at full power and remote control are planned, including also those addressed to reproduce the grid breakdowns and to test the relevant protections. The design of the MITICA injector components was completed in 2015their procurement is being made through a number of tenders, some of them already launched. The HV Power Supply system of the MITICA 1MV accelerator, provided by JADA, was delivered on site in December 2015. The challenging installation of these components, including the step-up transformers and the SF6 gas insulated transmission line, started soon after and will go on throughout 2016. The present phase, with the PRIMA buildings continuously filled with new components, with the installation activities progressing and with also the commissioning and testing phase starting represents a substantial step forward toward the main target. The paper will describe the main challenges the Project Team has dealt during this phase and the important feedback derived for the ITER HNB systems both from the technical and the organizational standpoints.

SPIDER is one of two projects of the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility under construction in Padova, Italy, at the Consorzio RFX premises. It will have a 100 keV beam source with a full-size prototype of the radiofrequency ion source for the ITER neutral beam injector (NBI) and also, similar to the ITER diagnostic neutral beam, it is designed to operate with a pulse length of up to 3600 s, featuring an ITER-like magnetic filter field configuration (for high extraction of negative ions) and caesium oven (for high production of negative ions) layout as well as a wide set of diagnostics. These features will allow a reproduction of the ion source operation in ITER, which cannot be done in any other existing test facility. SPIDER realization is well advanced and the first operation is expected at the beginning of 2018, with the mission of achieving the ITER heating and diagnostic NBI ion source requirements and of improving its performance in terms of reliability and availability. This paper mainly focuses on the preparation of the first SPIDER operations - integration and testing of SPIDER components, completion and implementation of diagnostics and control and formulation of operation and research plan, based on a staged strategy