Cryogenic viscous compressor development and modeling for the ITER vacuum system

The ITER vacuum system requires a roughing pump system that can pump the exhaust gas from the torus cryopumps to the tritium exhaust processing plant. The gas will have a high tritium content and therefore conventional vacuum pumps are not suitable. A pump called a cryogenic viscous compressor (CVC) is being designed for the roughing system to pump from ~500 Pa to 10 Pa at flow rates of 200 Pa-m³/s. A unique feature of this pump is that it allows any helium in the gas to flow through the pump where it is sent to the detritiation system before exhausting to atmosphere. A small scale prototype of the CVC is being tested for heat transfer characteristics and compared to modeling results to ensure reliable operation of the full scale CVC.