Alternative Approach in the Technology of Initial Conditioning of a Tokamak Discharge Chamber for Plasma Experiments Using the Examples of TSP and T-11M

Abstract

The paper analyzes the well-known vacuum technology method of “drying” vacuum volumes by purging them with “dry” gases, applied to the discharge chambers of tokamaks during their initial preparation phase before plasma experiments. This method competes with the traditional technique of thermal desorption by heating the tokamak chamber under high-vacuum conditions. Using the examples of the TSP and T-11M tokamaks, it is shown that, in the initial phase of preparing the tokamak chamber, before transitioning to plasma methods for wall conditioning, the simple “drying” method, especially when using forced convection of “dry” gases, can have significant advantages over the traditional approach.