HUN-REN EK-CER Achieves Major Milestone in ITER International Fusion Energy Experiment Developments

One of the key challenges in tokamak-type devices developed for fusion energy production is cooling the hundred-million-degree plasma when it becomes unstable. Although it involves only a few grams of material, the extreme temperature represents an enormous amount of energy that can damage certain components of the device.

Shattered pellet injection technology is being developed to address these situations. The system fires and shatters solid hydrogen pellets, frozen to minus 260 degrees Celsius, and injects them into the plasma within the device. The resulting solid hydrogen debris effectively cools the plasma rapidly.

This technology is being developed by the Fusion Plasma Physics Department of the HUN-REN Centre for Energy Research for the international ITER experiment. The laboratory team has developed a specialised gas valve capable of injecting gas at pressures of up to 150 bar into the pellet-containing tube within a few milliseconds, thereby propelling the pellet forward.

The project was supported by the HUN-REN Proof of Concept Programme (PoC-2022-047), which contributed significantly to the refinement of the technology. As the valve must operate in a magnetic field, the ITER team invited the Hungarian developers to test it in the ITER magnetic test laboratory. The test was a complete success: the device was operated for more than 500 cycles, performing reliably and without any issues. With this achievement, the Hungarian laboratory has demonstrated that it possessed the specialised technology required for this development and secured the tender to design the prototype of the fast valve for integration into ITER.

The success of this development not only paves the way for the production of the twenty-seven ITER valves but could also open the door to wider industrial applications. This achievement is an exemplary demonstration of how Hungarian science and innovation can contribute to the world’s largest scientific collaborations. An interesting video about the testing can be found in ITER News.