Conditioning of SST-1 Tokamak Vacuum Vessel by Baking and Glow Discharge Cleaning

•SST-1 Tokamak was successfully commissioned.•Vacuum vessel was pumped down to 4.5 × 10–8 mbar after baking and continuous GDC.•GDC reduced the water vapour by additional 57% while oxygen was reduced by 50%.•Under this condition, an initial plasma breakdown with current of 40 kA for 75 ms was achieved.

Steady-state Superconducting Tokamak (SST-1) vacuum vessel (VV) adopts moderate baking at 110 ± 10 °C and the limiters baking at 250 ± 10 °C for ∼ 200 h followed by glow discharge cleaning in hydrogen (GDC-H) with 0.15 A/m2 current density towards its conditioning prior to plasma discharge experiment. The baking in SST-1 reduces the water (H2O) vapor by 95% and oxygen (O2) by 60% whereas the GDC reduces the water vapor by an additional 57% and oxygen by another 50% as measured with residual gas analyzer. The minimum breakdown voltage for H-GDC in SST-1 tokamak was experimentally observed to 300 V at 8 mbar cm. As a result of these adherences, SST-1 VV achieves an ultimate of 4.5 × 10−8 mbar with two turbo-molecular pumps with effective pumping speed of 3250 l/s. In the last campaign, SST-1 has achieved successful plasma breakdown, impurity burn through and a plasma current of ∼ 40 kA for 75 ms.