Charging and control system of a high-energy capacitor bank for pulse experiments on controlled nuclear fusion

Abstract

Charging and control system of a high-energy capacitor bank storage is described. The capacitor bank is used to supply power to magnetic coils in experiments on magnetic controlled fusion and in similar applications. The capacitor bank is composed of ten sections of 100 IK-6-150 capacitors (6 kV, 150 μF) each, connected in parallel with a total stored energy of as high as 2.7 MJ. Charging occurs using inverters and stepup transformers developed by the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics. The general description and functional diagrams of the energy storage are presented and the control electronics of the inverters is described in detail. The general control system of the capacitor bank is based on a programmable controller that performs the basic charging algorithm, off-line control of the operating parameters, and handling of various extraordinary situations. The capacitor bank is used in experiments on microwave plasma heating and maintains the magnetic field stability of ~2% during the whole plasma discharge (5 ms) with a current amplitude of up to 32 kA in the coils.