Progress in the Development of a C$_{60}$ Plasma Gun for Disruption Mitigation*

We present the status of a C$_{60}$-fullerene plasma gun prototype proposed to be used for disruption mitigation with high-density, hyper-velocity plasma jets on ITER. The key element is the TiH$_{2}$/C$_{60}$ pulsed power, solid state cartridge source. We performed modeling and simulations of the processes critical to the cartridge design. Transient heating of TiH$_{2}$ packed grains, explosive sublimation of C$_{60}$ micron size powder, high pressure buildup, ejection of the molecular gas mixture through nozzles, adiabatic expansion of the plasma jet upon ejection from a plasma gun muzzle, and plasma jet penetration through transverse magnetic field were investigated. We show how we incorporated the results into the design of the TiH$_{2}$/C$_{60}$ cartridge source. Measurements characterizing the molecular gas jet produced by the cartridge source will be presented.