The 100 kV Faraday cage (High Voltage Deck) for the SPIDER experiment

In order to optimize the design and operation of the Ion Source for the ITER Neutral Beam Injector (NBI), a dedicated 100 keV Ion Source, identified as Source for the Production of Ions of Deuterium Extracted from RF plasma (SPIDER), is under construction in the Neutral Beam Test Facility, at the Consorzio RFX premises, in Padua, Italy. The Ion Source, polarized at -112 kVdc voltage, will produce negative ions (Deuterium D^- or Hydrogen H^-) which, extracted from the Plasma Grid with an extraction voltage up to 12 keV, are accelerated up to 100 keV by the 100 kVdc Power Supply (100 kV PS). The required Ion Source and the Extraction Power Supplies (ISEPS) system and the associated diagnostics are hosted inside a High Voltage Deck (HVD), a -100 kVdc air-insulated Faraday cage. These power supplies and various diagnostics and control equipment are connected to the Ion Source by means of a High Voltage Transmission Line (TL). The HVD (procurement started mid 2013; delivery on site in the second half of 2014) will consist of a wide structure (13 m (L) × 11 m (W) × 5 m (H)), designed to support the weight of the ISEPS components, mounted on supporting insulators and clad with a conductive metal sheet in order to reduce the electromagnetic interference (EMI). The paper reports on the design solutions of the HVD focusing on insulation, mechanical, thermal and EMI issues. The details of the main HVD interfaces with the TL and with insulating transformer are also described. Finite Element (FE) analyses have been performed, on the one hand, to verify the configuration from the electrostatic point of view and, on the other, to evaluate electrical screen effectiveness from the EMI point of view.