Seismic analysis of the ITER blanket remote handling system

Noguchi, Yuto; Maruyama, Takahito; Takeda, Nobukazu; Kakudate, Satoshi

Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-23) (DVD-ROM), 9 Pages, 2015/05

This paper reports the seismic analysis of the ITER Blanket RH system (BRHS) during blanket module handling operation. Since the BRHS, which is composed of the articulated rail and the vehicle manipulator, which travels on the rail deployed in the vacuum vessel in the toroidal direction, has various configurations and the rail system has flexibility, evaluation of dynamic response of the system is of essential importance. Via parameter sensitivity study on position and posture of the vehicle manipulator, the most unfavorable configuration for each component of the BRHS has been specified by the modal and spectrum analyses with the global BRHS FE model. Then using the quasi-static equivalent loads on the individual components obtained by the global BRHS seismic analysis, the structural verifications of the structural members of the BRHS have been carried out with detailed partial FE models. The system seismic resistance of the BRHS to a safe shutdown earthquake was confirmed.

Preliminary assessment for dust contamination of ITER in-vessel transporter

Saito, Makiko; Ueno, Kenichi; Maruyama, Takahito; Murakami, Shin; Takeda, Nobukazu; Kakudate, Satoshi; Nakahira, Masataka*; Tesini, A.*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 89(9-10), p.2352 - 2356, 2014/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2014.02.023

After plasma operation of the ITER reactor, irradiated radioactive dust will accumulate in the vacuum vessel (VV). The In Vessel Transporter (IVT) will be installed in the VV and remove the blanket modules for maintenance. The IVT will be carried back to the Hot Cell Facilities (HCF) after exchanging the blanket, and the IVT itself also needs maintenance. It is considered that the maintenance workers will be exposed to the irradiated radioactive dust attached to the IVT surface. In this study, dust contamination of the IVT is evaluated to assess exposure during maintenance work in the HCF. The IVT contamination scenario is assumed in the ITER project. From plasma shut down until maintenance is performed on the IVT will take 345 days under the ITER project assumption. Under this scenario, the effective dose rate from irradiated radioactive dust was calculated as an infinite plate for each nuclide. As a result, W-181 and Ta-182 were the dominant nuclides for the effective dose rate. If all dust is W-181 or Ta-182, the effective dose rate is about 400 Sv/h and 100 Sv/h respectively. Nevertheless, using the dose limit determined by the ITER project and the estimated maximum maintenance time, the effective dose rate limit was calculated to be 4.18 Sv/h under these limited conditions. To satisfy the dose rate limit, decontamination processes were assumed and the dose rate after decontamination was evaluated.

Dust removal experiments for ITER blanket remote handling system

Ueno, Kenichi; Aburadani, Atsushi; Saito, Makiko; Maruyama, Takahito; Takeda, Nobukazu; Murakami, Shin; Kakudate, Satoshi

Plasma and Fusion Research (Internet), 9, p.1405012_1 - 1405012_4, 2014/02

https://doi.org/10.1585/pfr.9.1405012

Performance evaluation on force control for ITER blanket installation

Aburadani, Atsushi; Takeda, Nobukazu; Shigematsu, Soichiro; Murakami, Shin; Tanigawa, Hisashi; Kakudate, Satoshi; Nakahira, Masataka*; Hamilton, D.*; Tesini, A.*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 88(9-10), p.1978 - 1981, 2013/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2013.02.093

no abstracts in English

Comparative study of laser and TIG weldings for application to ITER blanket hydraulic connection

Tanigawa, Hisashi; Aburadani, Atsushi; Shigematsu, Soichiro; Takeda, Nobukazu; Kakudate, Satoshi; Mori, Seiji*; Jokinen, T.*; Merola, M.*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 87(7-8), p.999 - 1003, 2012/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2012.02.055

This paper presents results of R&D activities where the laser and TIG welding tools were developed to apply the blanket hydraulic connection. The target pipe is 48.26 mm in outer diameter and 2.77 mm-thick. A single path welding without filler materials is required to reduce the weld heat input related to re-weldability. For the laser welding, the focal spot diameter was expanded to increase allowable misalignment. The TIG welding tool was equipped with AVC (Arc Voltage Control) to avoid a torch sticking and to enlarge allowable misalignment. For each tool, the welding conditions were optimized for all position welding to horizontally located pipes. Obtained parameters such as the weld heat input, allowable misalignment, lifetime of the tools and amount of sputter and fume, were comparatively assessed.

Maintenance concept for the SlimCS DEMO reactor

Tobita, Kenji; Uto, Hiroyasu; Kakudate, Satoshi; Takase, Haruhiko; Asakura, Nobuyuki; Someya, Yoji; Liu, C.

Fusion Engineering and Design, 86(9-11), p.2730 - 2734, 2011/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2011.03.022

For high availability of DEMO operation, sector horizontal transport hot cell maintenance scheme was studied. Transport of sector with 730 tons is carried out using a wheeled platform. The driving force of pulling the sector into a cask is ball screws. The fulcrum of the ball screws is the cryostat wall so that a large pulling force is expected with no-counter balance. The cask containing the sector is delivered by air casters from the cryostat to the hot cell. For the maintenance scheme, new concepts such as transfer of the tilting forces of toroidal coils using ropes and shafts and supports for the tilting force using reinforced concrete floor or cryostat wall were proposed. Based on the maintenance concept, the period required for replacement of all sectors is estimated to be 35.5-67.5 days, satisfying the design target (shorter than 3 months).

R&D on major components of control system for ITER blanket maintenance equipment

Takeda, Nobukazu; Kakudate, Satoshi; Matsumoto, Yasuhiro; Kozaka, Hiroshi; Aburadani, Atsushi; Negishi, Yusuke; Nakahira, Masataka*; Tesini, A.*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 85(7-9), p.1190 - 1195, 2010/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2010.02.037

Several R&Ds for the ITER blanket remote handling system had been performed from the Engineering Design Activity phase until now and only several technical issues regarding the control system remained such as noise caused by slip ring, control of cable handling system, signal transmission through very long cable and radiation-hard amplifier. This study concentrates on these issues. As a conclusion, major issues for the control system have been solved and the ITER blanket remote handling system becomes further feasible.

Compact DEMO, SlimCS; Design progress and issues

Tobita, Kenji; Nishio, Satoshi; Enoeda, Mikio; Kawashima, Hisato; Kurita, Genichi; Tanigawa, Hiroyasu; Nakamura, Hirofumi; Honda, Mitsuru; Saito, Ai*; Sato, Satoshi; et al.

Nuclear Fusion, 49(7), p.075029_1 - 075029_10, 2009/07

https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/49/7/075029

Recent design study on SlimCS focused mainly on the torus configuration including blanket, divertor, materials and maintenance scheme. For vertical stability of elongated plasma and high beta access, a sector-wide conducting shell is arranged in between replaceable and permanent blanket. The reactor adopts pressurized-water-cooled solid breeding blanket. Compared with the previous advanced concept with supercritical water, the design options satisfying tritium self-sufficiency are relatively scarce. Considered divertor technology and materials, an allowable heat load to the divertor plate should be 8 MW/m or lower, which can be a critical constraint for determining a handling power of DEMO (a combination of alpha heating power and external input power for current drive).

Mock-up test on key components of ITER blanket remote handling system

Takeda, Nobukazu; Kakudate, Satoshi; Nakahira, Masataka; Matsumoto, Yasuhiro; Taguchi, Ko; Kozaka, Hiroshi; Shibanuma, Kiyoshi; Tesini, A.*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 84(7-11), p.1813 - 1817, 2009/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2009.02.009

The maintenance operation of the ITER in-vessel component, such as a blanket and divertor, must be executed by the remote equipment because of the high -ray environment. During the Engineering Design Activity (EDA), the Japan Atomic Energy Agency had been fabricated the prototype of the vehicle manipulator system for the blanket remote handling and confirmed feasibility of this system including automatic positioning of the blanket and rail deployment procedure of the articulated rail. The JAEA is continuing several R&Ds so that the system can be procured smoothly to ITER. The residual key issues after the EDA are rail connection, cable handling and in-situ replacement of first wall. The last issue is newly raised and currently under the discussion. This presentation concentrates on the former two issues.

Development of a virtual reality simulator for the ITER blanket remote handling system

Takeda, Nobukazu; Kakudate, Satoshi; Nakahira, Masataka; Shibanuma, Kiyoshi; Tesini, A.*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 83(10-12), p.1837 - 1840, 2008/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2008.05.042

The maintenance activity in the ITER has to be performed remotely because 14 MeV neutron caused by fusion reaction induces activation of structural material and emission of ray. In general, it is one of the most critical issues to avoid collision between the remote maintenance system and in-vessel components. Therefore, the visual information in the vacuum vessel is required strongly to understand arrangement of these devices and components. However, there is a limitation of arrangement of viewing cameras in the vessel because of high intensity of ray. Furthermore, visibility of the interested area such as the contacting part is frequently disturbed by the devices and components, thus it is difficult to recognize relative position between the devices and components only by visual information even if enough cameras and lights are equipped. From these reasons, the simulator to recognize the positions of each devices and components is indispensable for remote handling systems in fusion reactors. The authors have been developed a simulator for the remote maintenance system of the ITER blanket using a general 3D robot simulation software "ENVISION". The simulator is connected to the control system of the manipulator which was developed as a part of the blanket maintenance system in the EDA and can reconstruct the positions of the manipulator and the blanket module using the position data of the motors through the LAN. In addition, it can provide virtual visual information, such as the connecting operation behind the blanket module with making the module transparent on the screen. It can be used also for checking the maintenance sequence before the actual operation.