The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility (PRIMA) is presently under construction at Consorzio RFX (Padova, Italy). PRIMA includes two experimental devices: an ITER-size ion source with low voltage extraction, called SPIDER, and the full prototype of the whole ITER Heating Neutral Beams (HNBs), called MITICA. The purpose of MITICA is to demonstrate that all operational parameters of the ITER HNB accelerator can be experimentally achieved, thus establishing a large step forward in the performances of neutral beam injectors in comparison with the present experimental devices. The design of the MITICA extractor and accelerator grids, here described in detail, was developed using an integrated approach, taking into consideration at the same time all the relevant physics and engineering aspects. Particular care was taken also to support and validate the design on the basis of the expertise and experimental data made available by the collaborating neutral beam laboratories of CEA, IPP, CCFE, NIFS and JAEA. Considering the operational requirements and the other physics constraints of the ITER HNBs, the whole design has been thoroughly optimized and improved. Furthermore, specific innovative concepts have been introduced.

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This paper describes the physics design of a 100 keV, 60 A H(-) accelerator for the diagnostic neutral beam (DNB) for international tokamak experimental reactor (ITER). The accelerator is a three grid system comprising of 1280 apertures, grouped in 16 groups with 80 apertures per beam group. Several computer codes have been used to optimize the design which follows the same philosophy as the ITER Design Description Document (DDD) 5.3 and the 1 MeV heating and current drive beam line [R. Hemsworth, H. Decamps, J. Graceffa, B. Schunke, M. Tanaka, M. Dremel, A. Tanga, H. P. L. De Esch, F. Geli, J. Milnes, T. Inoue, D. Marcuzzi, P. Sonato, and P. Zaccaria, Nucl. Fusion 49, 045006 (2009)]. The aperture shapes, intergrid distances, and the extractor voltage have been optimized to minimize the beamlet divergence. To suppress the acceleration of coextracted electrons, permanent magnets have been incorporated in the extraction grid, downstream of the cooling water channels. The electron power loads on the extractor and the grounded grids have been calculated assuming 1 coextracted electron per ion. The beamlet divergence is calculated to be 4 mrad. At present the design for the filter field of the RF based ion sources for ITER is not fixed, therefore a few configurations of the same have been considered. Their effect on the transmission of the electrons and beams through the accelerator has been studied. The OPERA-3D code has been used to estimate the aperture offset steering constant of the grounded grid and the extraction grid, the space charge interaction between the beamlets and the kerb design required to compensate for this interaction. All beamlets in the DNB must be focused to a single point in the duct, 20.665 m from the grounded grid, and the required geometrical aimings and aperture offsets have been calculated.

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