EU DEMO Remote Maintenance System development during the Pre-Concept Design Phase

During the EU DEMO Pre-Concept Design Phase, the remote maintenance team developed maintenance strategies and systems to meet the evolving plant maintenance requirements. These were constrained by the proposed tokamak architecture and the challenging environments but considered a range of port layouts and handling system designs. The design-driving requirements were to have short maintenance durations and to demonstrate power plant relevant technologies. Work concentrated on the in-vessel maintenance systems, where the design constraints are the most challenging and the potential impact on the plant design is highest. A robust blanket handling system design was not identified during the Pre-Concept Design Phase. Novel enabling technologies were identified and, where these were critical to the maintenance strategy and not being pursued elsewhere, proof-of-principle designs were developed and tested. Technology development focused on pipe joining systems such as laser bore cutting and welding, pipe alignment, and on the control systems for handling massive blankets. Maintenance studies were also conducted on the ex-vessel plant to identify the additional transport volumes required to support the plant layout. The strategic implications of using vessel casks, and of using containment cells with cell casks, was explored. This was motivated by the costs associated with the storage of casks, one of several ex-vessel systems that can drive the overall plant layout. This paper introduces the remote maintenance system designs, describes the main developments and achievements, and presents conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations for future work

Verification method for the design of remote handling systems using a reliability-based stochastic Petri Net approach

The verification of complex engineering systems from the very early phases of the design process is of primary importance as it directly influences the performance and system functionalities. Traditional design approaches aim at using simulations as a set of tools during the verification process. However, the current trend in the industry is to base the design process on the simulations as a simulation-based design. This perspective will therefore convey the design process towards a verification-driven design process. This paper reviews the definition of design process, engineering design verification process and decision making process. The objectives of the paper aim at describing an innovative verification-based design process using reliability-based stochastic Petri Net approach. The scope of the paper includes aspects of complex system designs and demonstrates a method to verify the concept design against its requirements using a quantitative approach. Finally, the method is applied on a case study and the results as well as future development are discussed in the last section.</jats:p

Early design verification of ITER remote handling systems using Digital Mock-Ups within simulation lifecycle environment

This work is part of the EFDA's European Goal Oriented Training programme on Remote Handling (RH) 'GOT-RH'. The programme aims to train engineers for activities supporting the ITER project and the long-term fusion programme. This paper is written based on the results of a project 'Verification and Validation (V&amp;V) of ITER RH system using Digital Mock-Ups (DMU)'. The purpose of this project is to study efficient approach of using DMU for the V&amp;V of the ITER RH system design utilizing a System Engineering (SE) framework. It gives an overview of the current trends in product and simulation lifecycle management (PLM/SLM) in the industry. This paper suggests a nearly design verification process centralized around a collaboration platform. The purpose of this paper aims at improving and formalizing the ITER RH design process together with the V&amp;V process. The objective of this study aims to improve the cost efficiency and reliability of ITER RH systems