J. Palmer

Development of a long reach articulated manipulator for ITER in vessel inspection under vacuum and temperature

This project takes place in the EFDA Remote Handling (RH) activities for the fusion reactor International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The aim of the R&D program is to demonstrate the feasibility of in-vessel RH intervention by a long reach, limited payload manipulator which penetrates the first wall using the six IVVS penetrations. Potential activities for this device include close inspection of the plasma facing surfaces and leak detection. The work includes the design, manufacture and testing of a demonstrator articulated manipulator called the In-Vessel Penetrator (IVP). The first part of this work concerned the analysis of the requirements and resulted in the development of the conceptual design of the overall manipulator, comprising a 5 module, 11 d.o.f robot based on a parallelogram structure. A scale one mock up of a representative segment was manufactured and tested. In parallel, a feasibility study of the IVP operation was made and provided recommendations to modify the design for intervention under vacuum and temperature. Some technologies were selected and analysed to determine their suitability to the IVP application and items identified for further validation. This paper presents the whole robot concept, the results of the test campaign on the prototype demonstrator and the vacuum and temperature technologies study.

Water hydraulic actuators for ITER maintenance devices

The characteristic advantages of hydraulics (high power density, simple construction and reliability) together with the characteristics of water as the pressure medium (fire and environmentally safe, chemically neutral, not activated nor affected by radiation) are highlighted in critical applications such as remote handling operations in international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER). However, lack of commercial selection of water hydraulic components, common design expertise and known application experiences prevents wide use of water hydraulics. Since 1994, IHA has designed and manufactured water hydraulic tools for ITER divertor maintenance and experiences have been good. Therefore, IHA is developing water hydraulic component selection to be applied in coming systems where water hydraulics is foreseen to provide an advantage. Aim of the still on going project is to develop a set of components like power units, control components and actuators. By that way designers are able to apply water hydraulics where advantageous. In the paper the component types, their design and characteristics and results obtained so far are presented.

ITER in-vessel components transfer using remotely controlled casks

The paper provides an overview of the ITER transfer cask system design. The system is required during the assembly and maintenance periods of ITER. The system is designed with safety as the primary goal, to ensure minimum exposure risk to personnel and to allow the reliable transfer of components between the machine and the hot cell.

ITER hot cell

The paper provides an overview of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) hot cell system design. The system includes the hot cell proper, required for use both during machine assembly and operations, and the radwaste facility. The hot cell is divided in different areas and equipped with a variety of process and testing equipment. The components and waste streams are such that repair and refurbishment operations have minimum impact on the overall machine operation schedule.

Performance and remote maintenance of attachment schemes for Plasma Facing Components

The divertor design for the ITER-FEAT fusion reactor is based on cassettes which comprise a reusable body and three sacrificial Plasma Facing Components (PFCs) expected to be replaced in a hot-cell a number of times during machine lifetime. Central to this maintenance approach are the PFC-to-cassette attachments which must be readily assembled/disassembled by remote handling methods and withstand severe mechanical and thermal loading conditions during machine operation. This paper describes the facilities, equipment and methods used to carry out extensive testing of two attachment schemes, shear keys and multi-links, in order to assess their in-service performance and suitability to remote maintenance operations.

Utilization of virtual prototyping in development of CMM

The characteristic advantages of hydraulics (high power density, simple construction and reliability) together with the characteristics of water as the pressure medium (fire and environmentally safe, chemically neutral, not activated nor affected by radiation) are highlighted in critical applications such as remote handling operations in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). However, component cost and lack of wide selection of water hydraulic components make it difficult to build and to test complex water hydraulic systems. The use of virtual prototyping for the development of water hydraulic tools can be used to address this problem. Rapidly increased computational power has created conditions for extensive numerical calculations, enabling computer aided virtual prototyping to replace physical prototype phases in product development.

Carrier and bore tools for 4 in. bent pipes

Following the ALARA principle, remote handling techniques are developed for ITER maintenance to prevent direct hands-on access on the vacuum vessel components and reduce the personal dose rate. Maintenance of the divertor cassettes will require cutting, welding and non-destructive testing of the water-cooling-pipes. Work performed under the EFDA work program aimed to demonstrate the feasibility to operate with bore tools by means of an innovative carrier concept and to study the associated mechanisms. This paper presents a carrier designed to navigate through 4 in. bent pipes and the results of the test campaigns on the prototypes.

Overview of Bore Tools Systems for divertor remote maintenance of ITER

Because of the radiation levels preventing direct, hands-on access to the machine components, maintenance work on ITER will eventually require the use of Remote Handling techniques. In particular, the replacement of components such as divertor and blanket modules will require the use of remote cutting, welding and Non Destructive Testing of water cooling pipes.

Tool prototypes for replacing plasma facing components

The ITER divertor consists of replaceable cassettes, which consist of body element and replaceable plasma facing components. Connecting the plasma facing components to the cassette body is critical in order to minimise the amount of generated waste during maintenance. This paper presents tools for plasma facing component replacement, when using a multi-link type connection.