Conceptuation of a continuously working vacuum pump train for fusion power plants

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is developing a continuously working and non-cryogenic pumping solution for a demonstration power plant (DEMO). This pumping train shall cover the full operational pressure regime of a fusion reactor and is based on two pump types, namely diffusion pumps and liquid ring pumps. The whole pumping train must fulfill high safety and reliability requirements and it has to be made fully tritium compatible. In this paper, the design of a prototype pumping train and the special requirements for a DEMO machine are presented and discussed. A central feature of this pumping train is the use of a liquid metal as tritium compatible working fluid in both pump types, that leads to a pumping train which is able to cover a pressure range of 12 decades, namely from 10−9 to 103 mbar. Finally, a test facility for pump testing over a wide pressure regime is described. In this facility (THESEUS), experiments with a diffusion pump have been performed and first results are presented.