Construction of the Lithium Tokamak Experiment (LTX)

The Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX)* will investigate the low recycling operating regime for magnetically confined plasmas using liquid lithium plasma facing surfaces. The engineering design and machine fabrication process will be presented. The most significant new feature of the LTX machine is the installation of a heated copper toroidal shell that will be operated at 300\r{ }C to 500\r{ }C. Its stainless steel plasma-facing liner will be internally coated with an evaporated layer of liquid lithium. The shell is comprised of four quadrants that have been fabricated in-house from explosively bonded stainless steel on copper to conform closely to the outer plasma flux surface. All internal components of the LTX machine have been designed and built to meet the simultaneous requirements for liquid lithium compatibility, high temperature operation, and electrical isolation. These requirements have led to unique design features, such as the method of supporting the shell quadrants, and construction of the new internal poloidal field coils. *Supported by US DOE contract {\#}DE-AC02-76CH-03073