TIMO-2-A cryogenic test bed for the ITER cryosorption pumps

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has been carrying out research and development in the field of vacuum cryopumps for nuclear fusion devices over the last decade. Together with the development activities also experience in the operation of the needed cryogenic systems necessary for such type of large scale cryopumps was collected. Due to the specific requirements of a large fusion device, such as ITER, the cryogenic distribution is based on gaseous helium at the needed temperature levels rather than liquid nitrogen or liquid helium. KIT has set up a large scale research facility, called TIMO-2, fully equipped with supercritical helium supply at large flow rates to be able to perform cryogenic tests of components under ITER-relevant conditions. During first test campaigns at TIMO-2 with a large scale model cryopump the ITER cryosorption vacuum pumping concept was successfully validated. After major refurbishments and upgrades, the TIMO-2 facility is now ready for the acceptance tests of the ITER torus cryopump. This paper describes the modified test facility TIMO-2 with particular attention to the available cryogenic supply at different temperature levels. The new 100 K helium supply facility will be described in detail.