The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF), called PRIMA (Padova Research on ITER Megavolt Accelerator), is hosted in Padova, Italy and includes two experiments: MITICA, the full-scale prototype of the ITER heating neutral beam injector, and SPIDER, the full-size radio frequency negative-ions source. The NBTF realization and the exploitation of SPIDER and MITICA have been recognized as necessary to make the future operation of the ITER heating neutral beam injectors efficient and reliable, fundamental to the achievement of thermonuclear-relevant plasma parameters in ITER. This paper reports on design and R&D carried out to construct PRIMA, SPIDER and MITICA, and highlights the huge progress made in just a few years, from the signature of the agreement for the NBTF realization in 2011, up to now-when the buildings and relevant infrastructures have been completed, SPIDER is entering the integrated commissioning phase and the procurements of several MITICA components are at a well advanced stage.

This paper presents the development and testing of the prototype of a hybrid mechanical-static dc circuit breaker (CB) for quench protection of superconducting magnets based on a mechanical switch paralleled to a static CB. In normal operation, the mechanical switch is closed and it handles the continuous flow of dc current, minimizing the on-state losses. In case of intervention, the mechanical switch opens, commutating the current into the static CB that quickly interrupts and transfers the current into a discharge resistor, withstanding the reapplied voltage. This paper was carried out to face and solve some issues of this design solution being not available in the literature examples of similar applications rated for significant power levels. The operation of the hybrid CB has been successfully tested up to a current of 10 kA with a recovery voltage of about 1 kV. Special tests have been dedicated to characterize the reliability and the repeatability of the current commutation from the mechanical switch to the static CB and to characterize the arc voltage under different conditions.