Verification test results of a cutting technique for the ITER blanket cooling pipes

Shigematsu, Soichiro; Tanigawa, Hisashi; Aburadani, Atsushi; Takeda, Nobukazu; Kakudate, Satoshi; Mori, Seiji*; Nakahira, Masataka*; Raffray, R.*; Merola, M.*

The current design of the ITER blanket system is a modular configuration and a total of 440 blanket modules are to be installed in the ITER vacuum vessel. Each blanket module consists of the first wall (FW) and the shield block (SB). The FW receives a high heat load from the plasma. The SB shields components from the neutrons generated by the nuclear fusion reaction. The FW will be damaged by the heat load and neutrons, so it requires scheduled replacement. For the FW replacement, cutting/welding tools for the cooling pipes must be able to conduct the following operations: access and cut/weld the pipe from the inside of the cooling pipe. The cutting tool for the pipe end is required to cut flat plate circularly from the surface side of the FW. This paper describes the current status of R&D of the cutting tools for maintenance of the cooling pipe of the FW.