The divertor assembly for the ITER-FEAT fusion reactor consists of 54 rail mounted cassettes located in the bottom region of the vacuum vessel. These cassettes comprise a stainless steel body, designed for the full lifetime of ITER, onto which are mounted 3 sacrificial Plasma Facing Components (PFC's). The latter are designed to be replaced a number of times during the lifetime of the machine to allow for component failure, erosion of the armour or in order to implement alternative divertor geometries. To demonstrate the feasibility of the refurbishment process a test facility know as the Divertor Refurbishment Platform (DRP) has been established at the ENEA Research Centre in Brasimone, Italy, as part of the large ITER R&D project L7. Within this facility a number of PFC assembly, disassembly and handling operations have been carried out on a full size mock-up of a divertor cassette to optimise hot cell equipment design and Remote Handling maintenance methods. Following a short description of the DRP facility, equipment and methods, this paper reports the results and draws conclusions from the extensive testing of PFC-to-cassette attachment schemes in order to assess their in-service performance and suitability to remote maintenance operations. Finally, outstanding issues regarding the cassette refurbishment approach are highlighted and future activities discussed.
Performance and Remote Maintenance of Attachment Schemes for Plasma Facing Components
Poggianti, A.;Damiani, C.;
2000-09-01
Abstract
The divertor assembly for the ITER-FEAT fusion reactor consists of 54 rail mounted cassettes located in the bottom region of the vacuum vessel. These cassettes comprise a stainless steel body, designed for the full lifetime of ITER, onto which are mounted 3 sacrificial Plasma Facing Components (PFC's). The latter are designed to be replaced a number of times during the lifetime of the machine to allow for component failure, erosion of the armour or in order to implement alternative divertor geometries. To demonstrate the feasibility of the refurbishment process a test facility know as the Divertor Refurbishment Platform (DRP) has been established at the ENEA Research Centre in Brasimone, Italy, as part of the large ITER R&D project L7. Within this facility a number of PFC assembly, disassembly and handling operations have been carried out on a full size mock-up of a divertor cassette to optimise hot cell equipment design and Remote Handling maintenance methods. Following a short description of the DRP facility, equipment and methods, this paper reports the results and draws conclusions from the extensive testing of PFC-to-cassette attachment schemes in order to assess their in-service performance and suitability to remote maintenance operations. Finally, outstanding issues regarding the cassette refurbishment approach are highlighted and future activities discussed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
