Installation of the Multiaperture Negative Ion Source NIO1

Negative ion sources are a fundamental component of advanced Neutral Beam Injectors (NBI), which needs to be strongly optimized in the perspective of DEMO reactor. A relatively compact RF ion source, named NIO1, with 9 beam apertures for a total H -current of 130 mA, 60kV accelaration voltage, is being tested and installed at Padua, in Consorzio RFX, to provide a test bench for source optimizations in the framework of the accompanying activities insupport to the ITER NBI test facility. Source magnetic configuration is a minimum B magnetic bottle, which requires placing magnets also behind the RF coil. There are three acceleration grids, named plasma grid, extraction grid and postacceleration grid, followed by a repeller electrode for a better control of the space charge compensation of the extracted beam. Accelerated H -can be dumped on calorimeter with 283 small sampling holes, and a segmented cooling circuit. Most critical cooling circuits were obtained with electrodeposition techniques, while numerous cooling channel for source magnet multipoles were carved in copper and closed by brazing, aiming at sustaining a continuous beam power of 9 kW and rf power below 5 kW. Plan and status of the overall installation, including the 70 kV/ 50 kVA insulation transformer powering a high voltage deck and a optical cavity ring down spectrometer are here summarized and reported. Plasma and low voltage beam operations are discussed. Development of the Fast Emittance Scanner and preliminary tests of sampling beam calorimeter atLNL are also discussed.