R&D status of the Indian test facility for ITER diagnostic neutral beam characterization

The Indian test facility (INTF) is a R&D facility under development at the Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, as part of the neutral beam development from negative ion source program. The major advantage of the INTF, besides developing beams from large ion sources, is to characterize and benchmark the ITER diagnostic neutral beam (DNB) to the desired specifications over transport lengths of ~21 m, a unique feature of this test bed. Such a study will establish the expected power to be delivered by DNB into the ITER plasma, an important parameter to estimate the S/N ratio expected from the He ash measurements by charge exchange recombination spectroscopy. It may be noted that DNB is a procurement package for India as an in-kind contribution to ITER. Extensive physics and thermomechanical calculations have been performed to finalize the component design and layout. Adequate choice of materials, and manufacturing and jointing processes compatible to ITER safety standards have been made in order to make the components adhere to the safety and quality classification, thereby ensuring that the components survive the ITER lifetime while operating in harsh nuclear environments. The components are currently in various phases of manufacturing, and the first operations of the INTF are anticipated in Q4 of 2019.