U.S. ITER researchers at the Fusion Pellet Fueling Lab at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are developing and testing pellet injector technology for fueling and controlling the hot plasma in the ITER tokamak experimental reactor. Current research is focused on U.S. ITER contributions to fueling, disruption mitigation and vacuum systems. The work includes pellets and injectors to both fuel the plasma and control plasma edge localized instabilities. A novel pellet extruder has been developed to provide a continuous flow of solid hydrogen that can be cut into precisely sized pellets. Finally, a gas injection system to rapidly bring down a turbulent plasma when needed, a diagnostic to measure pellet mass in flight, and a roughing pump system to pump exhaust to the processing plant complete recent tokamak technology. - Agatha Bardoel, 865.574.0644, February 21, 2012
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