Remote handling systems for ITER

The requirement to reduce the investment cost for ITER as compared with the 1998 ITER design, has led to a reduction in the size of the ITER machine and a number of design changes which have an impact on the remote maintenance of ITER Major components to be considered for remote handling (RH) include the divertor cassettes, shield blanket modules, neutral beamline components, as well as in-port components, which are integrated with the port shield plug such as auxiliary heating equipment, limiters and test blanket modules. The design of the following equipment has been adapted for the smaller machine with reduced access space for the RH equipment: the RH equipment used for the in-vessel RH operations to be deployed from the casks, the RH equipment that is used to remove the in-port assemblies (port plugs), as well as the remotely operated casks, which, with the use of double-door systems, can be attached to and removed from vacuum vessel ports. Defective components are loaded in transfer casks and moved by means of a remotely operated air floatation system attached underneath the cask, to the hot cell facility, where they dock against identical port interfaces and unload the component for remote refurbishment and/or waste storage.