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Description
The Pulse Discharge Cleaning (PDC) is a system that will be used in RFX-mod2 to clean the first wall through repeated low-current pulses of about 50 kA. It comprises three main power supplies, each dedicated to a different set of magnets. One generates an oscillating pulse of 10 kA with a duration of a few ms, repeated every 2 s, another provides a static toroidal field of 50 mT, and the third generates a vertical poloidal field to facilitate the plasma discharge.
The current system was installed in the early 2000s for RFX-mod, the previous iteration of the experiment, however its completion, including the connection to the magnets of RFX-mod and its full commissioning, never took place. In the last few years, in view of the start of operations of RFX-mod2, a significant effort has been conducted to bring this system to operational readiness.
Thanks to funding obtained within the framework of the NEFERTARI project under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), the missing components required to enable the operation of the PDC have been procured and installed. The main procurement items were the medium-voltage disconnectors, needed to isolate the PDC power supplies from the magnets during normal experimental operation, the laying of the missing medium-voltage cable connections, and a snubber circuit to reduce the voltage derivative on the magnetizing magnet of RFX-mod2 used for PDC operation. The installation and commissioning of these components have been successfully completed, and the system is currently undergoing an integrated commissioning to verify the correct operation of all subsystems prior to its use in the RFX-mod2 experimental campaign.