Study on compact design of remote handling equipment for ITER blanket maintenance

Takeda, Nobukazu; Kakudate, Satoshi; Nakahira, Masataka; Shibanuma, Kiyoshi

In the ITER, the neutrons created by D-T reactions activate structural materials, and thereby, the circumstance in the vacuum vessel is under intense radiation field. Thus, the in-vessel components such as blanket are handled and replaced by remote handling equipment. The objective of this report is to study the compactness of the remote handling equipment (a vehicle/manipulator) for the ITER blanket maintenance. In order to avoid the interferences between the blanket and the equipment during blanket replacement in the restricted vacuum vessel, a compact design of the equipment is required. Therefore, the compact design is performed, including kinematic analyses aiming at the reduction of the sizes of the vehicle equipped with a manipulator handling the blanket and the rail for the vehicle traveling in the vacuum vessel. The compact vehicle/manipulator is designed concentrating on the reduction of the rail size and simplification of the guide roller mechanism as well as the reduction of the gear diameter for vehicle rotation around the rail. As a result, the manipulator becomes about 30% lighter, 8 tons, than the original weight, 11.2 tons. Based on the compact design of the vehicle/manipulator, the structural analysis for the rail and the kinematical analysis for replacement of blanket are also performed. It is confirmed that every blanket can be replaced without any interferences in the vessel.