Developing the Science and Technology for the Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX)

The Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX) is a device planned to address scientific and technological gaps for the development of viable plasma facing components for fusion reactor conditions (FNSF, DEMO). MPEX is designed to deliver those plasma conditions with a novel Radio Frequency plasma source able to produce high density plasmas and heat electron and ions separately with Electron Bernstein Wave (EBW) heating and Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) with a total installed power of 800 kW. The science and technology for this source system is currently being tested on Proto-MPEX. This is a linear device utilizing 12 water-cooled copper coils able to achieve peak magnetic fields of 1.6T. The currently total installed heating power (for helicon, EBW and ICRH) is 330kW. An overview of the status of this development program is given with an outlook to the next steps.