On July 5, 2025, witnessed by an expert group, the Negative Ion Source Neutral Beam Injection (NNBI) system of the Comprehensive Research Facility for Key Systems of Fusion Reactor Host (CRAFT), undertaken by the Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, passed the internal process test and process acceptance. The system successfully achieved the parameter indicators of beam energy 202.1 keV, beam pulse width 120 s, and beam power 2.1 MW. All indicators met the acceptance requirements, and the overall performance reached the international advanced level.

After years of cooperation between the Neutron Technology Application Research Center of the Institute of Energy and the project team, the integration of resources and technologies has been achieved. Relying on their professional capabilities in the research of vacuum, wall treatment and other related technologies, the technical personnel of the Neutron Center assisted the project team of the Institute of Plasma Physics in overcoming key process and technical difficulties such as large-area negative ion source technology, cesium feeding and recirculation, successfully solved the technical bottlenecks including large-area negative ion generation, negative ion beam extraction and acceleration, and maintenance of hundreds of seconds long time scale, and realized the full localization of the neutral beam injection system.

The successful acceptance of this negative ion source neutral beam injection system project not only provides a key technical foundation for the construction and operation of the fusion reactor neutral beam injection system, but also provides strong support for our institute's research in deepening the fields of serialized fusion neutron sources and negative ion source technologies. In the next step, the Neutron Center of our institute will continue to give play to its own advantages, to fill the technical gap in the commercial application of nuclear fusion entering the "tritium era", promote the "along-the-way incubation" of derivative technologies from large scientific devices, and make greater contributions to serving national strategies and local economic development.

On-Site of the CRAFT NNBI Process Acceptance Meeting

Expert Group Conducts On-Site Testing of NNBI Performance Parameters

On-Site Work of Staff and Postgraduates from the Neutron Center