A 400-pellet feed system for the ORNL centrifuge pellet injector

An improved and extended pellet fabrication and feed mechanism is being developed for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) centrifuge pellet injector that is presently installed on Tore Supra. This upgrade will extend the number of pellets available for a single-plasma discharge from 100 to 400. In addition, a new pusher and delivery system is expected to improve the performance of the device. As in the original system, deuterium ice is deposited from the gas phase on a liquid-helium-cooled rotating disk, forming a rim of solid deuterium. The rim of ice is machined to a parabolic profile from which pellets are pushed. In the new device, a stack of four ice rims are formed simultaneously, thereby increasing the capacity from 100 to 400 pellets. An improved method of ice formation has also been developed that produces clear ice. The pellet pusher and delivery system utilizes a four-axis, brushless DC servo system to precisely cut and deliver the pellets from the ice rim to the entrance of the centrifuge wheel. Pellets can be formed with sizes ranging from 2.5- to 4-mm diam at a rate of up to 8 per second. The operation of the injector is fully automated by a computer control system. The design and test results of the device are reported.