Predicting the runtime reliability of ITER Remote Handling maintenance equipment

High system reliability is of utmost importance during the ITER Remote Handling (RH) maintenance operations, as the operational environment is heavily irradiated and populated by fragile and very expensive reactor components and diagnostics equipment. The radiation prevents using live personnel for recovery purposes in the case of equipment malfunction and the fragile environment prevents using brute force to recover malfunctioning equipment. Due to these facts, the concept of Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) for the RH maintenance equipment is exceptionally valid. To improve the RCM concept, probabilistic methods based on the stochastic simulation and reliability mathematics are studied to add a degree of failure prediction. This paper describes the project to improve the reliability of remotely operated Water Hydraulic Manipulator (WHMAN) utilising probabilistic methods. This work was done on an FMECA (Failure Methods, Effects and Criticality Analysis) performed on the WHMAN prior to starting this project. Furthermore, additional considerations regarding maintenance regime derived from the results of this project are presented.