ITER hot Cell—Remote handling system maintenance overview

ITER is a large scale fusion device designed to study the high temperature fusion reaction between tritium and deuterium. The success of a tokamak-type fusion reactor will depend to a great extent on developing reliable and safe methods of carrying out routine maintenance and repairs remotely. Remote Handling System (RHS) is used to perform remotely the maintenance inside the vacuum vessel. RHS will be contaminated during exposure inside ITER Vacuum Vessel with activated dust, tritium and beryllium. RHS will be transported to the Hot Cell Facility to be remotely decontaminated before its hands-on maintenance operation. RHS maintenance is made of repair, changing parts, testing and re-commissioning activities. In this paper the results of concept design engineering investigation of the routine remote maintenance and repair is developed. Maintenance requirements for a nuclear fusion facility are rather similar to those of JET (David et al. 2005 [1]), but magnified (Lässer et al., 2012 [2]; Loughlin et al., [3]). A dedicated facility of a unique scale is planned to support ITER remote maintenance activities.