Vacuum Gate Valves
The Material-Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX), a superconducting magnet, steady-state device, is being built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), herein referred to as “the Company”, to address the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor. This device, as designed, will have the unique feature of being able to conduct accelerated lifetime tests of plasma-facing components, including those that have experienced neutron damage.
The primary role of the water-cooled gate valve is to provide a leak tight vacuum chamber barrier when plasma is not present and the mating vacuum chambers are separated, remove heat that is gate valve when the plasma is present and the gate valve is open, and provide inlet and outlet ports for cooling water.
