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Fast Repetitive Arc Free Current Limiting Circuit Breaker--UTRON, Inc., 8506 Wellington Road, Suite 200, Manassas, VA 20109-3915; 703-369-5552
Dr. F. Douglas Witherspoon, Principal Investigator
Dr. F. Douglas Witherspoon, Business Official
DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-99ER82915
Amount: $99,893
The Department of Energy seeks fault protection devices which will effectively limit the current damage to radio frequency (RF) tubes during fault conditions associated with fusion plasma heating. This project will develop a new innovative circuit breaker capable of fast, arc-free current interruption . In a fault situation, the circuit breaker will limit the energy to RF tubes to less than a few joules at heating power levels of 10-50 MW. This will be demonstrated experimentally on a small scale in a single shot mode in Phase I, by interrupting 10 kA in 2 ms without arc formation. In Phase II, repetitive operation will be demonstrated. A current limiting circuit breaker device will be fabricated utilizing a pulsed high pressure discharge to separate the contacts.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Successful development of this device should result in faster arc-free opening switches/circuit breakers for both the commercial power industry and pulsed power applications, with longer component lifetimes, smaller physical size, and lower cost than currently available.