The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility towards SPIDER operation

SPIDER is one of the two projects of the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) under construction in Padova, Italy, at Consorzio RFX premises; it will have a 100 keV beam source with a full-size prototype of the radiofrequency (RF) ion source for the ITER Neutral Beam Injector (NBI), designed to operate with pulse length up to 3600 s, featuring ITER-like filter field configuration, caesium oven layout and a wide set of diagnostics. These features will allow reproducing the ion source operation like in ITER as cannot be done in any other existing test facility. SPIDER realization is well advanced and the first operation is expected at the beginning of 2018, with the mission to prove the possibility of achieving the ITER heating and diagnostic NBI ion source requirements and of improving its performance in terms of reliability and availability. This paper mainly focuses on the preparation of the first SPIDER operations: integration and testing of SPIDER components, completion and implementation of diagnostics and control and workout of operation and research plan, based on a staged strategy.