Development and integration of a 50 Hz pellet injection system for the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST)

Highlights: • The design of the pumping system fits the operation requirement well not only theoretically but also experimentally. • The data showed that the averaged pellet injection velocity and propellant gas pressure had a relationship submitting to the power function. • The reliability of the injected pellet was mostly around 90% which is higher than the PI-20 system thanks to the improved pumping system and the new pellet fabrication and acceleration system. - Abstract: A 50 Hz pellet injection system, which is designed for edge-localized mode (ELM) control, has been successfully developed and integrated for the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). Pellet injection is achieved by two separated injection system modules that can be operated independently from 1 to 25 Hz. The nominal injection velocity is 250 m/s with a scatter of ±50 m/s at a repetition rate of 50 Hz. A buffer tank and a two-stage differential pumping system of the pellet injection system was designed to increase hydrogen/deuterium ice quality and eliminate the influence of propellant gas on plasma operation, respectively. The pressure of the buffer tank could be pumped to 1 × 10² Pa, and the pressure in the second differential chamber could reach 1 × 10⁻⁴ Pa during the experiment. Engineering experiments, which consisted of 50 Hz pellet injection and guiding tube mock-up experiments, were also systematically carried out in a laboratory environment and demonstrated that the pellet injection system can reliably inject pellets at a repetitive frequency of 50 Hz.