[en] Equipment racks have been used to support process equipment in radioactive facilities for many years. Improvements in the design of these racks have evolved relatively slowly primarily as a result of limitations in the capabilities of maintenance equipment; that is, tasks could only be approached from above using bridge cranes with viewing primarily through periscopes. In recent years, however, technological advances have been made by the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program (CFRP) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in bridge-mounted servomanipulators with onboard auxiliary hoists and television viewing systems. These advances permit full cell coverage by the manipulator arms which, in turn, allow maintenance tasks to be approached horizontally as well as from above. Maintainable equipment items can be stacked vertically on a rack because total overhead access is less important and maintenance tasks that would not have been attempted in the past can now be performed. These advances permit greater flexibility in the design and cell layout of the racks and lead to concepts that could significantly increase the availability of a facility. The evolution of rack design and a description of the alternative concepts based on present maintenance systems capabilities are presented in this paper. 13 refs., 11 figs