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Development of Thick Wall Welding and Cutting Tools for ITER
Masataka Nakahira, Hiroyuki Takahashi, Kentaro Akou and Koichi Koizumi
Tokai Research Establishment, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, 2-4 Shirakata-Shirane, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki, 319-1195, Japan
Received:March 12, 1998Accepted:April 18, 1998Published:April 20, 1998
Keywords:ITER, Remote Handling, Welding tool, Cutting tool, Blanket maintenance
Abstract
The Vacuum Vessel, which is a core component of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is required to be exchanged remotely in a case of accident such as superconducting coil failure. The in-vessel components such as blanket and divertor are planned to be exchanged or fixed. In these exchange or maintenance operations, the thick wall welding and cutting are inevitable and remote handling tools are necessary. The thick wall welding and cutting tools for blanket are under developing in the ITER R&D program. The design requirement is to weld or cut the stainless steel of 70 mm thickness in the narrow space. Tungsten inert gas (TIG) arc welding, plasma cutting and iodine laser welding/cutting are selected as primary option. Element welding and cutting tests, design of small tools to satisfy space requirement, test fabrication and performance tests were performed. This paper reports the tool design and overview of welding and cutting tests.
Cite this article as:M. Nakahira, H. Takahashi, K. Akou, and K. Koizumi, “Development of Thick Wall Welding and Cutting Tools for ITER,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.10 No.2, pp. 116-120, 1998.Data files:
