The Blanket and Divertor Maintenance Concept for ITER

E. Tada, K. Iokil), G. Janeschitz'), D. Maisonnier2),E. Martin'), K. Shibanuma31,

M. Kondoh31, T. Burgess31 and R. Haange3)
Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Naka-gun, Naka-machi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan
1) ITER Joint Central Team, Garching Joint Work Site, 85784 Garching, Germany
2) The NET Team, c/o IPP, Garching 85784, Germany
3) ITER Joint Central Team, Naka Joint Work Site, Naka-gun, Naka-nachi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan
ABSTRACT

maintenance cell for handling cooling pipes, shield plug and

closure plates are also developed.

The Engineering Design of ITER has been conducted

under an international joint effort aiming at realization of
fusion energy. The remote maintenance of in-vessel
components such as blanket and divertor is quite essential
since personnel access to the core of ITER will be prohibited.
The maintenance procedures and design concepts of the invessel remote handling system have been developed and the
design feasibility has been validated through technology
development. This paper describes the design outline
developed for both blanket and divertor maintenance, the
latest R&D status of the remote handling systems as well as
the full-scale mock-up tests planned during the ITER EDA.

DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Since the reactor core of ITER will be highly activated

due to DT operation, the assembly and maintenance of the
components inside the cryostat will have to be conducted by
remote handling technology. Particularly, the maintenance of
the in-vessel components such as the blanketffirst wall and
the divertor is specifically critical since scheduled
maintenance is foreseen due to the severe heat and particle
loads applied to these components by the plasma.
A modular type blankedfirst wall structure has been
chosen as a reference design concept so as to allow individual
module replacement through four horizontal ports dedicated
for remote maintenance and to be consistent with a multilevel maintenance philosophy. A rail-mounted vehicle type
transporter/manipulator with a handling capacity of around 5
ton has been designed to replace the blankedfirst wall module
within the ITER spatial constraints. The technology of
handling a 1-ton payload including rail deployment into
vacuum vessel has been demonstrated using this type of
transporter and manipulator [1&2]. In addition, a bore tool
composed of an optical fiber for YAG laser transmission has
been developed for weldingcutting of a branch pipe through a
cooling manifold with curved sections.
As for divertor maintenance, a cassette type divertor
structure and a pair of toroidal rails have been chosen as a
reference design concept. This allows the cassette
replacement to be performed through four divertor ports
dedicated for remote maintenance and to align/lock the
cassette within the required precision. Two types of
transportation systems for the cassette replacement have been
developed. They are a toroidal mover and a radial mover.
The toroidal mover transports a cassette in toroidal direction
along the rails using a rack & pinion mechanism, and
implements associated operations such as connections of
earth straps, as well as fixation and alignment of the cassette.
A radial mover is to extracdinsert a cassette through a
dedicated divertor port and is designed to move along a radial
rail. In addition to these movers, cassette attaching locks
compatible with magnetic loads and remote operation, and
0-7803-2969-4/95/$4.0001995EEE

399

The main design requirements of the blanket module

and divertor cassette maintenance are listed in Table 1. The
blanket module is categorized into Class-2 component which
requires infrequent scheduled maintenance. According to the
phased operation from the Basic Performance Phase (BPP) to
the Enhanced Performance Phase (EPP), all modules are
scheduled to be replaced with breeding blanket modules after
BPP so as to achieve high neutron fluence of 1 MWa/m2 in
EPP. The maintenance time to replace one module as well as
all modules through the four maintenance ports is specified to
be two months and two years, respectively. In addition, it is
required to install each module within a 2-mm step to
adjacent modules. Therefore, the blanket maintenance system
has to be capable of handling a 4-ton module precisely under
intense gamma radiation of 30 kGy/h.
The divertor is categorized into Class- 1 component
which requires frequent scheduled maintenance. In the current
EDA design, the divertor is segmented into three cassettes in
each sector and it is expected to replace all cassettes 3 times
in BPP and 5 times in EPP. The maintenance time specified
for replacement of all cassettes is 6 months. Accordingly,
quick and reliable remote maintenance is very important to
maximize reactor availability. Furthermore, the divertor is an
extremely sensitive plasma facing component and hence a
precise positioning accuracy for the cassette installation is
essential. As a result, the divertor maintenance system has to
be capable of transporting and aligning a 20-ton cassette
within 2-mm tolerance in a radiation field of 30 kGy/h.
In addition to those in-vessel handling, a number of
remote operations are necessary to weldcut cooling pipes
connected to the blanket modules and the divertor cassettes,
and remove components such as shield plugs, closure plates
and cooling pipes located in the maintenance ports in order to
provide an access space for remote handling systems and
component transportation.
Table 1 Main desim reouirements on blanket and divertor maintenance
Items
Blanket module
Divertor cassette
Classification
Class-2 (infrequent)
Class- 1 (scheduled)
- 4 todmodule
- 20 rodcassette
Handling weight
36 modules/sector
3 cassenes/sector
No. or module or
I cassette
I 720 modules/total I 60 cassettedtotal
maintenance port
I 4 horizontal ports I 4 divertor ports
3 for BPP
Replacement
I all modules for I
BPP to EPP
I
5 for EPP
Redacement time
I 2 monthdmodule I
2 monthdcassette
2 yearslall modules
6 monthslall cassettes
+- 2 mm between
+- 2 mm between
Installation tolerance
modules
cassettes
50 mm between components & structures
Installation clearance
I 20 mm between adjacent components
Environments
- 5OoC, Inert gas 1 bar. 30 kGyh

BLANKET MODULE MAINTENANCE

The rail supported at every 90 degree port provides

sufficient stiffness, resulting in stable operation during
heavy in-vessel component handling.
(2) The rail has no sensitive elements such as actuators and
sensors, so that high reliability can be attained.
( 3 ) Several vehicles/manipulators can be operated in parallel
on the common rail to minimize maintenance time.
(4) The vehicle/manipulator can be rotated around the rail
and along the rail so as to access to all in-vessel surface
after deployment through a narrow port space.
(5) The rail is partially deployed and effective maintenance
can be performed even in case of a local module failure.
(6) Rescue vehicles can be installed on the rail and failed
vehicles/manipulators and end-effectors can be removed
through the 90 and the 270 degree ports.
(7) The rail is stored in a compact circular shape into a
maintenance cell at the 0 and the 180 degree ports so as
to minimize the reactor building space.
(1)

According to the design conditions given in Table 1 and

the current ITER machine layout, the maintenance scenario
and procedures for the blanket module replacement have been
developed, together with the major remote handling systems.

Blanket module layoui

Figure 1 shows a typical modular blanket structure in
the current design. In this concept, the blanket is poloidally
segmented into a number of modules under the limitation of a
dead weight around 4 ton. The blanket modules are attached
by mechanical locking or welding to the strong back plate
which is a thick toroidal structure. The cooling manifolds are
routed in a space between the module and the back plate up to
the upper vertical port with several bends: each module is
connected to the manifolds by branch pipes.
The modular blanket concept allows individual module
maintenance separately from the massive back plate in case of
a module failure and also enables multi-level maintenance
including in-situ repair of first wall/armor, in-vessel
replacement of a module and replacement of the back plate as
a backup. In addition, this concept permits high temperature
operation of in-vessel components due to separation from
vacuum vessel and low magnetic loads acting on the module
and vacuum vessel.

Rail-mounted vehicle type remote handling system

A rail-mounted vehicle type remote handling system has
been selected for the blanket module maintenance, which is
composed of rail transporters, vehicles/manipulators and endeffectors, as schematically shown in Fig. 2. Four horizontal
ports at 0, 90, 180 and 270 degree are allocated to this system
and maintenance cells containing all remote handling devices
are permanently installed at these ports. The rail transporters
are deployed through 0 and 180 degree ports and formed into a
full circular configuration in the vacuum vessel: the rail is
supported at each maintenance port. The vehicle/manipulator
are moved along the rail for module installation and
transportation. Radial transporters are installed at 90 and 270
degree ports to transport modules between the in-vessel area
and the maintenance cells where transfer casks are connected
for module delivery to hot cell or from the assembly area.
The rail-mounted vehicle system is also used for other invessel components such as baffles, limiters and RF antenna.
The main features of this system are listed below.

Replacement procedures and time estimation

Procedures : In the case of a module failure, the main
procedures for replacement are listed below.
(1) The in-port components such as closure plates, shield
plugs and cooling pipes are removed from the
maintenance ports and then rail, vehicle/manipulator and
radial transporter are deployed into the vessel.
( 2 ) In parallel, bore tools are inserted from the upper port
into the cooling manifolds for cutting the branch pipes.
(3) After disconnecting a failed module from the back plate,
the vehicle/manipulator transports the module to the
radial transporter for extraction to a maintenance cell.
(4) The module is transferred into a transfer cask for
delivery to a hot cell. A new module is delivered to the
maintenance cell with a transfer cask and supplied to the
vehicle/manipulator using the radial transporter for
installation to the position.
(5) The branch pipes are welded and inspected using the
bore tools.
(6) All remote handling devices are stored in the
maintenance cells and the in-port components are
reassembled.
In the case that all modules are replaced, four vehicles
with manipulators and two radial transporters are operated in
parallel and the procedures from (2) to (5) mentioned above
are repeated.

rice

Fig. 2 Basic arrangement of rail-mounted vehicle type remote handling

system installed in the ITER tokamak

Fig. 1 A typical structure of modular type blanket

400

Maintenance time : According to the above procedures, a

preliminary time assessment of the module replacement has
been performed assuming the main processing speed based on
results obtained from a prototypical vehicleimanipulator and
rail transporter, and from weldingicutting experiments. The
result indicates that the maintenance time for one module and
all module replacement is roughly 3 weeks and 1.5 years
including 30 % contingency, respectively. It is concluded
that the current blanket concept and remote handling
procedures satisfy the replacement time requirements.
Rail transporter
Rail structure : The main feature of this vehicle type remote
handling system is to separate a structural function (rail) from
a transportation function (vehicle/manipulator), resulting in
stable operation for handling heavy component within the
restricted space. The rail should be strong enough to support
all loads during the module handling. On the other hand.
reducing the weight is a fundamental requirement on remote
handling system. For this, a box structure is chosen for the
rail and 3-D FEM analyses have been performed to specify the
basic structure and rib arrangement of the rail for handling a
4-ton blanket module. As a result, the cross-section of 30 cm
width and 60 cm height, and 15-mm thick plates have been
specified.
Rail configuration : The rail should be flexible in accordance
with the deployment requirement to form the posture from a
straight configuration in the maintenance port to a circular
configuration in the vessel and thus the rail should be a
multi-joint structure. In general, a joint gives a low stiffness
and non-linear characteristics due to gaps and misalignment.
Therefore, the number of joints should be minimized.
According to kinematics study on the rail storage/deployment,
8-link structures have been chosen for the rail to satisfy the
spatial requirements for rail storage in a 13.5-m space and to
deploy 180 degrees with a major radius of 8m in the vessel.

R&D status : A hinge joint with a hook type locking

mechanism and two conical pins has been chosen for the rail
joint structure: the hinge and hook are to sustain bending and
torsion moment, and the pins are to adjust the position and to
sustain vertical shear loads. The structural integrity under the
design loads and cyclic lockingiunlocking performance have
been verified using a prototypical 3-link rail model [ 2 ] . In
addition, using this 3-link rail model, the rail deployment and
storage experiments have been performed to demonstrate the
Vehicle

Rail

rail deploymentlstorage procedures and control methods. As a

result. it has been verified that the rail can be deployed and
stored using a synchronous operation of toroidal movement
by a vehicle in the vessel and radial movement by a rail
deployment system in the maintenance cell.

Vehicle/ManipuIator
Figure 3 shows an overall view of vehicle/ manipulator
designed for 4-ton blanket module handling. The vehicle can
be moved along the rail using a rack and pinion mechanism,
and a two step telescopic manipulator is attached to the
vehicle: the manipulator can be rotated around the rail using a
planet gear mechanism and also rotated along the rail. In this
configuration, the rail and vehicle/manipulator can be
deployed through a narrow port space and can access all of the
in-vessel wall surface.

Vehicle : A vehicle is composed of a C-shaped structure with

a toroidal movement mechanism and a driving mechanism to
rotate and slide the manipulator. The C-shaped structure can
prevent interference with the rail support and hinge joint for
the entire toroidal movement along the rail. Bogie type guide
rollers are equipped at the interface between the rail and the C shaped structure so as to prevent inclined contact due to
bending and torsion moment. According to partial model
experiments and analyses, the guide roller with crowning
surface of 16-m radius has been selected to ensure uniform
surface contact. The rotating mechanism is composed of a
pair of sector gears and pinion gears. One of the sector gears
is fixed to the vehicle and another one connected to the
manipulator can be rotated around the rail by using pinion
gears with a planet gear mechanism.
Telescopic manipulator : The telescopic manipulator is
composed of two concentric square cylinders. The outer arm
is connected to the rotating mechanism and can be slid by
means of rack and pinion mechanism. The inner arm is
moved using a ball screw fixed to the outer arm. A linear
guide mechanism is selected to guide the manipulator arms
along the telescopic axis so as to provide sufficient stiffness
against the out-of-plane loads. The total length of
manipulator is about 6 m to access to all in-vessel surface.
Port space : Figure 4 shows a typical posture of rail, vehicle,
manipulator with end-effector for handling 4-ton blanket
module in a maintenance port. According to the degree of
freedom of the manipulator and end-effector, all devices can be
passed through a port with a 1.6 m wide and a 2.6 m high
which meet the spatial requirements of port opening.

Handling capacity : A handling capacity of the rail-mounted

vehicle/manipulator system depends on the applied moment
Horizontal port

Telescopic
Rotation
arm

Ill il
m

UJ

Fig. 4 Plan view of r a l . vehicle/manipulator and end-effector posture

inserted through mantenance port (1 6 m wide, 2.6 m high)

Fig . 3 Overview of vehicle/manipulator for 4-tOn module handling

40 1

(2) A position feedback control has been applied to

compensate deformation of the component and deflection
of the manipulator. High positioning capability within
1 mm accuracy has been demonstrated.

End-effector
A blanket module to be replaced is gripped from the
plasma side by an end-effector which is attached to the tip of
the telescopic manipulator. Since the modules with different
length are installed in different inclination in the poloidal
direction, the end-effector should have the degree of freedom
to adjust position, posture and gripping length.
Figure 7 shows a structural concept of the end-effector
which is capable of gripping blanket module with a length
from 1 m to 2 m based on the blanket module segmentation
and has additional flexibility of a,p and y axes for position
and posture control of the gripper. The a axis is to rotate the
gripper along a R-guide using a rack and pinion mechanism
so as to reduce the torque applied to the end-effector by
compensating the off-set loads between the gravity center and
the lifting point. In addition, the end-effector is compatible
with the blanket module attachment schemes, which are
mechanical locks and welding, and wrenches for fixing the
blanket module to the back plate are equipped. The main
parameters of the end-effector are given in Table 2.

Fig. 5 Handling capacity of vehicle/manipulator for blanket module

to the rotating mechanism around the rail, which depends on

payload and manipulator posture (armlength and angle).
Based on the configuration and parameters designed for the
telescopic manipulator and the rotating mechanism under the
design requirements, a maximum handling capacity of the
vehicle/manipulator for blanket module handling has been
estimated. Figure 5 shows the results of the handling
capacity estimated: each value in this figure corresponds to
the handling capacity for each blanket module including the
dead weight of the end-effector. It can be seen that the
handling capacity for all blanket module location is over 5
ton which is over the payload requirements.

. Degree of freedom
Driving capacity
Movable range

3 for posture, 2 for gripping

Over IO00 kg-m for all axes
a axis : 10 -75 degree
p axis : 10 10 degke
yaxis : 0 180 degree
Gripping axis : 1 2 m
< I ton

Dead weight of end-effector

R&D status : A prototypical 3-staged telescopic manipulator,

vehicle and partial rail have been fabricated as shown in Fig.

6. The manipulator with the payload capacity of 1.2 ton can

be movedhotated along/around the rail with a maximum arm
length of 6 m. In this set-up, mechanical characteristics,
manipulator capability and position feedback control have
been investigated [ 11 and the main results are as follows.
(1) The vertical and lateral deflection of the manipulator are
3 mm and 6 mm under the rated payload and sufficiently
high stiffness has been demonstrated for stable handling
of heavy comDonent.

. Vehicle

*C-shaped
/structure

R-guide

si 1

Fig. 6 Prototypical vehicle/manipulator ( Payload: 1.2ton, Arm length: 6m)

Fig. 7 Outline of end-effector for blanket module handling

402

Figure 10 shows the principle of the divertor cassette

integration inside the vacuum vessel. The cassettes are
supported, accurately positioned (HHFCs alignment 5 2
mm) and locked to withstand the current induced loads thanks
to 2 toroidal rails in conjunction with 2 supports. The
cassettes are water cooled by cooling lines routing through
the 20 vacuum-vessel ducts (so-called divertor ports) and are
electrically connected to the inboard and outboard baffles as
well as to the vacuum vessel using earth-straps and the
locking supports acting as electrical connectors. The two
toroidal rails are interrupted in front of 4 dedicated remote
handling ports (4 x 90 ) to permit the cassette replacement.
The other 16 divertor ports are occupied by the cryopumps. 3
diagnostics cassettes are located in front of each handling
ports. The cassette in the alignment of a radial rail is called
central cassette whereas its 2 adjacent cassettes are called
second cassettes. A mirror rack is installed under each central
cassette and a diagnostics block is located in each divertor
handling port in-between the central cassette and the vacuumvessel plug. The diagnostics cassettes and blocks include
diagnostics connectors.
The cassette-based design has been chosen for the
following reasons: it minimises the installation and
replacement times: the full divertor replacement is estimated
to require about 50 days (4 handling ports in parallel for 2
shifts a day); the water and electricity connections being
located in low neutron flux areas, they can be re-welded many
times; the bellows are protected from neutron embrittlement
and remote handling compatible bolts can be used for
assembling; the combination of 2 toroidal rails and 4 radial
rails, supports and toroidal / radial movers permits rapid
access from the cassette side to attach, align (52 mm), lock
and connect the cassettes; the access through the equatorial
and vertical ports is not normally required, so remote handling
of divertor and blanket proceeds in parallel; and it includes
provision of neutron shielding to protect the vacuum vessel,
the coils and the cryopumps. In addition, other designs of
plasma facing components can be accepted by the basic
divertor structure relatively late in the programme without
affecting the interfaces with the remote handling equipment.

Telescopic

Power

Fig. 8 Overview of YAG laser bore tool for weldingcuning of branch pipe

Full-scale mock-up test

A full-scale mock-up test program has been established

in ITER to demonstrate an integrated performance of blanket
module remote handling. In this program, the major remote
handling devices required for the blanket module replacement
are integrated into a test facility, as schematically shown in
Fig. 9: the test facility is composed of a mock-up blanket
structure with cooling pipes, the all remote handling devices
mentioned above including maintenance cells, a transfer cask
with double seal door and in-port handling device.
These structure and devices a-e fabricated, assembled and
tested in an international effort of JA, EU and US Home
Teams in close collaboration with the ITER Joint Central
Team. The double seal door and in-port handling device are
developed by the US and EU Home Teams, and delivered for
integration into the test facility prepared by the JA Home
Team. Fabrication of the full-scale remote handling devices
have been initiated so as to be completed by the end of 1997.
D

0 degree cask

Blanket back wall

Port

Remote handling system for cassette replacement

Blanket module
Maintenance cell

I\ Maintenance cell
(Rail deployment)
Fig. 9

A full-scale mock-up test facility to demonstrate an integrated

remoe handling of biankct module

DIVERTOR CASSETTE MAINTENANCE

Divertor cassette layout

The divertor assembly consists of 60 cassettes
mounted on 2 vacuum-vessel toroidal rails. Each cassette is 5
m long, - 2 m high and 0.5 - 1 0 m wide, and weighs more
than 20 tons. The cassettes consist of a body and high heat
flux components (HHFC) demountable i n the hot cell I n
addition, 12 of these cassettes, called diagnostics cassettes.
include instrumentation.

The replacement of a cassette (see Fig. 11) involves

a radial motion inside the divertor handling port along the
radial rail to/from the in-vessel area to/from the ex-cryostat
maintenance cell, a circular motion inside the vacuum-vessel
along the toroidal rails as well as the completion of the
auxiliary operations to assemble and disassemble the
supports, the earth-straps and the cassette-to-cassette
connectors and to cut and weld the cooling pipes. The radial
motion is carried out by a radial mover system involving a
skid acting as a wheel supported cassette carrier and a pusherpuller all together guided by the radial rail. The skid includes
2 toroidal rail segments which permit to ensure the rails
continuity in front of the handling port. The toroidal motion
and the in-vessel assembly operations are carried out by a
toroidal mover, as schematically shown in Fig. 12. During
handling operations, this mover, being temporary stored
besides the central position, can collect the cassette carried by
the radial mover skid and then handle it. It is guided by the
toroidal rails and capable of pushing-pulling the cassettes
using two lifting forks inserted in-between the cassette and
the rails. These forks, equipped with wheels, permit to
reduced the friction loads that are induced by direct sliding of
the supports onto the rails (rescue scenario). Another
handling system based on handling cask and a rail-way

403

system takes over to transport the cassettes to/from the excryostat maintenance cell to/from the Hot Cell building for
storage and refurbishing.
In addition to cassette handling, the radial mover
system, using specialised skids and end-effectors, opens and
closes the cryostat and vacuum-vessel plugs; assembles the
radial rail bridges, handles the divertor handling port pipes,
the diagnostic blocks and the racks, connects the diagnostics
and installs the central and the second cassettes. Water pipe
remote handling operations are carried out from outside the
cryostat by mobile piping casks which permit the
introduction of remote handling bore pipe tools through the
straight pipes for cutting, welding and inspection operations.
Other in-vessel remote handling operations are foreseen for:
the inspection and defect detection including assessment of
remaining lifetime; the Be or W coating operations to extend
the lifetime of eroded plasma facing components; the
operations to rescue failed or jammed equipment. These 3
non-systematic operations are envisaged to be carried out by
dextrous carriers and tools acting from the equatorial ports.
During machine operation, the cassettes removed
from the machine are refurbished in the hot cell. The storage
facility can content up to two sets of cassettes. The ITER
divertor is subject to development works to validate the
cassette concept: integration & installation inside the vacuum
vessel and maintenance, in-situ and in hot cell. It has to
comply with severe loading and to be compatible with short
maintenance times.

Fig. I O Divertor cassette integration the vacuum vessel

Cassette integration and inleqace components

Each cassette is equipped with the inboard and the
outboard support pads. The alignment of the HHFC's is
carried out by the support shoes which are final machined
before cassette installation from a 3D survey of the cassette
and the toroidal rails. The cassette locking (270 tons
downwards vertical loads and 100 tons inwards radial loads are
applied to the inboard support) is carried out by a bolt
actuated clamping system (see Fig. 13). The bolts are
tightened thanks to toroidal mover bolting tools. The inboard
support and the VV rail define the cassette radial position
whereas the outboard support is floating thanks to 4 vertical
links to accommodate the temperature discrepancies (- k 200
"C) between the cassette and the vacuum vessel. The supports
act also as electrical contacts with the rails using flat pressure
contact and gas connectors for the gas injection circuits
routing through the rails.
Remote handling earth-straps are located in-between
the cassette and the inner vacuum vessel wall, the inboard and
the outboard baffles to prevent arcing and minimise the halo
current forces. They include 2 halves, one attached to the fixed
component whereas the other one, comprising flexible parts
(such as laminations) to accommodate relative motions, is
attached to the cassette body. They can sustain up to - 190
kA halo-current (loads and heating). Remote handling welded
joints are being compared to bolted connections. The remote
handling tools are handled by the toroidal mover robotics arm.
The possible cassette-to-cassette connectors located under the
dome should prevent arcing. They are designed on the same

Fig. 11 Remote handling system for divertor cassette replacement

adial mover skid

-\

Toroidal
rail & rack

Fig. 12 Regular cassette handling s c h e m (,,iroldal mover)

Cassette

basis as the earth-straps.

The inlet and outlet water feeds are located at the

outboard of the cassette body. They include a set of bellows
for pipe alignment prior to remote handling welding and to
accommodate relative motions during operation. These
bellows are supported by a structure to sustain the loads due
to current flowing through the pipes.
404

In-board locklng

Fig. 13 Attaching locks of cassette to the in-board toroidal rail

The four equi-spaced (90 ") radial rails act as guiding

and supporting rails and include a rack for the radial mover
kinematics. They are made of segments fixed to the vacuum
vessel and of hinged bridges located at the level of the vacuum
vessel plug, the cryostat plug and the suppression system.
These bridges have to be tilted up-wards to permit the
installation of the plug and the availability of the suppression
system. During handling operations, they allow the
alignment of the radial rail. They consist of a stainless steel
body either fabricated at the factory (integrated to the vacuum)
vessel or assembled on site, and covered by bolted hard cover
plates including rolling surfaces and a rack. For alignment
purpose, the plates are final machined from a 3D survey of
the vacuum vessel (tolerance: ?c 25 mm) involving a
computer assisted theodolyte system. In case of damage, these
cover plates can be replace remotely.
The 2 concentric toroidal rails are installed inside the
vacuum vessel. The principles of the integratiodinstallation
to the vacuum vessel are similar to those for the radial rails
except that adequate strength is needed to sustain large current
induced loads. More, these rails act as current paths and as
parts of the gas injection circuits.
Each cassette requires 2 radial straight pipes (0 160
mm) for water cooling, baking-out and draining. They are
supported to sustain the current induced loads. The degrees of
freedom required for the relative motions against the cassettes,
the vacuum vessel and the cryostat are provided by the
cassette water feed bellows, the radially sliding pipe supports,
2 feed-throughs through the plugs and an universal joint. The
remote handling weld is planned to be TIC type (CO2 laser
beam is considered as an alternative).
In-vessel remote handling equipment

The radial mover system includes a pusher-puller

mover driven by a rack-and-pinion based kinematics and
guided by the radial rail. This mover is equipped with a
dextrous robotics arm and its tool box to carry out delicate
normal and rescue operations (bolting, grasping, handling,
inspecting ...). It can mechanically grip and connect (electrical
supply and control, water hydraulics) the different types of
specialised skids dedicated to the handling of: the standard
cassettes (simple skid as shown on Fig. 12), of the second
cassette (skid equipped with 2 rolling & lifting forks capable
of handling the second cassette in the toroidal direction, the
final assembling operations being carried out by the toroidal
mover), the central cassette (skid equipped with bolting or pin
insertion tools capable of assembling the specific central
cassette supports and electrical connections), the diagnostics
blocks and racks as well as handling and assembling of the
vacuum vessel and cryostat plugs.
The toroidal mover is introduced inside the vacuum

Fig. 14 full-scale remote handling test facility for divertor cassette

which complies with the need for overcoming dust induced

loads or the use of the supports acting as sliding pads
(altemativehescue to the fork concept).

Full-scale mock-up test

A full-scale mock-up test program has been also

established for divertor cassette remote handling and
refurbishing in hot cell as well as blanket module handling.
For the divertor cassette handling, the major remote handling
devices and mock-up structures are integrated into a test
facility prepared by the EU Home Team, as schematically
shown in Fig. 14. The radial movement device is developed
by the JA Home Team and delivered to the test facility. The
demonstration tests on refurbishing of HHFC in hot cell is
performed by the US Home Team.
CONCLUSION

Maintenance procedures for blanket module and divertor

cassette have been developed, together with remote handling
systems and associated structures. For blanket maintenance,
prototypical tests on rail transporter, vehicle/manipulator and
bore tools have been conducted and the feasibility of the
current design has been verified. For divertor maintenance,
details of remote handling devices have been well defined and
qualification tests on critical elements are in progress. A
R&D program of full-scale remote handling tests for both
blanket module and divertor cassette has been established to
demonstrate an integrated performance within EDA. Design
and fabrication of the full-scale remote handling devices are
shared among Parties in close collaboration with JCT and
these devices developed are integrated into test facilities at
Host Parties in joint effort.

vessel using a skid. It includes: 2 rack-and-pinion based

kinematics blocks guided and supported by the toroidal rails; a

structural body; cassette gripping mechanisms, an actuator
capable of moving the cassette by - i 13 mm in the radial
direction (nominal gap between the unlocked supports and the
rails); two extractable lifting forks capable of being inserted
under the cassette, lifting it thanks to water hydraulics jacks
and moving it in the toroidal direction using rollers; bolting
tools to lock the cassette supports; a dextrous robotics arm
and its tool box capable of handling assembly tools (welding
probably) for the electrical connectors and for other delicate
remote handling operations; and an umbilical which routes
from the maintenance cell through the divertor port, then to
the toroidal mover. Each toroidal kinematics is capable of
applying a maximum pushing-pulling load of - 7 tons

405

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to express their sincere

appreciation to Drs. S. Shimamoto, S. Matsuda, R. Toschi,
M. Huguet and R. Parker for their continuous guidance and
encouragement. They are grateful to members of Home
Teams and JCT who are co-operated in this development.
REFERENCES
[l] S. Kakudate, et al., "Mock-up test of rail-mounted
vehicle type maintenance system for fusion experimental
reactor", 18th Symp. on Fusion Technology, 1994
[2] K. Oka, et al., "Mock-up test of rail-mounted vehicle
type in-vessel transporter/manipulator", to be presented
in this conference.