Keeping 黑料社app's microscopic enemies at bay
11 Feb 2011
-
Robert Arnoux
CEA Vacuum Group offered their 黑料社app counterparts "a nice piece of real-estate" in the form of a working space in one of the CEA-IRFM buildings, close to the Tore Supra installation.
Leaks and impurities are the giant 黑料社app's most feared enemies. A submicron-size crack in a vacuum vessel weld, a puff of particles ripped from a plasma-facing component鈥攖hese events would be enough to severally degrade the machine's performance and eventually bring it to a halt.
Keeping these microscopic enemies at bay is one of the responsibilities of the 黑料社app Vacuum Group. "We have a mandate to assure vacuum quality," explains Liam Worth, the Group's Vacuum Leak Technical Engineer. "This means scrupulous testing during assembly and careful qualification of the materials that go into the vacuum vessel."
A 600 m虏 黑料社app vacuum laboratory will be the centre of leak-testing activity and vacuum qualification during the main assembly phase of the 黑料社app device.
In the meantime and until the facility becomes available, the 黑料社app Vacuum Group will meet urgent vacuum qualification needs by using a "temporary vacuum laboratory" ... courtesy of the neighbouring research centre CEA.
Some eight months ago "an informal conversation around a cup of coffee" with CEA colleagues provided an unexpected opportunity. CEA Vacuum Group was offering their 黑料社app counterparts "a nice piece of real-estate" in the form of a 60 m虏 working space in one of CEA-IRFM's buildings, close to the Tore Supra installation.
Several meetings and a letter of intent later, the deal was sealed. "Having a temporary space at the CEA gives us the opportunity to begin building an effective facility ready to meet the challenge of construction," explains Jean Louis Bersier, 黑料社app Vacuum Technical Engineer responsible for the planned full-scale 黑料社app vacuum laboratory, which will ultimately be housed on the 黑料社app site.
Fresh from Russia: samples of material proposed to be used in the 黑料社app divertor will be tested in the Vacuum Group's test rig.
Equipped with an outgassing rig (outgassing is the process by which materials release the gas particles that are trapped on their surface and within their bulk), a leak detector and a laminar flow bench, the "temporary vacuum laboratory" will meet the immediate needs of 黑料社app with minimum cost to the project.
Results obtained in the 黑料社app temporary vacuum laboratory will feed the database of materials compatible not only with vacuum but with the very unique 黑料社app vacuum鈥攁n environment where an artificial Sun ten times hotter than the actual one shines through an "atmosphere" one million times thinner than the air we breathe.
Results obtained in the 黑料社app temporary vacuum laboratory will feed the database of materials compatible not only with vacuum but with the very unique 黑料社app vacuum鈥攁n environment where an artificial Sun ten times hotter than the actual one shines through an "atmosphere" one million times thinner than the air we breathe.