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Neutron irradiation influence on high-power thyristor device under fusion environment

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Abstract

Because of their economy and applicability, high-power thyristor devices are widely used in the power supply systems for large fusion devices. When high-dose neutrons produced by deuterium–tritium (D–T) fusion reactions are irradiated on a thyristor device for a long time, the electrical characteristics of the device change, which may eventually cause irreversible damage. In this study, with the thyristor switch of the commutation circuit in the quench protection system (QPS) of a fusion device as the study object, the relationship between the internal physical structure and external electrical parameters of the irradiated thyristor is established. Subsequently, a series of targeted thyristor physical simulations and neutron irradiation experiments are conducted to verify the accuracy of the theoretical analysis. In addition, the effect of irradiated thyristor electrical characteristic changes on the entire QPS is studied by accurate simulation, providing valuable guidelines for the maintenance and renovation of the QPS.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Science Data Bank at https://cstr.cn/31253.11.sciencedb.j00186.00409 and https://www.doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.j00186.00409.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Wei Tong & Bo Chen

  2. Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China

    Hua Li, Meng Xu & Zhi-Quan Song

  3. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Meng Xu

Authors
  1. Wei Tong
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  2. Hua Li
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  3. Meng Xu
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  4. Zhi-Quan Song
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  5. Bo Chen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Wei Tong, Meng Xu, Hua Li, Zhi-Quan Song and Bo Chen. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Wei Tong and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hua Li or Meng Xu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no Conflict of interest.

Additional information

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University (No. JZ2023HGTA0182) and Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology Program of China (No. 2018-000052-73-01-001228).

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Tong, W., Li, H., Xu, M. et al. Neutron irradiation influence on high-power thyristor device under fusion environment. NUCL SCI TECH 35, 72 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-024-01433-1

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