Design and application of GDC on EAST Tokamak

On EAST Tokamak, DC glow discharge (GDC) is developed to clean the first wall of plasma. It can effectively control the recycling of H, C, O impurities and improve the wall conditions. There are four GDCs which distribute equally on the EAST Tokamak vacuum vessel wall. Each GDC is equipped with an anode, a stainless steel cover and four support legs. The anode is insulated from cover with Al2O3 ceramics. After a round of experiment, the value of insulation resistance of GDC decreases remarkably due to metallization. To protect the insulation parts and heighten the reliability, ceramic protection covers are used on the GDCs. The other measures which can heighten insulation grades are also taken. After upgrade, the insulation resistance of each GDC between anode and ground is raised highly. When the pressure reaches 4 Pa, H2-GDC and He-GDC is strarted. Boronation and siliconization are also applied to the device wall conditioning. After GDC cleaning, the impurities and partial pressure of remainder gases in vacuum vessel (VV) is decreased greatly and vacuum degree of VV can reach high easily.