Concept for a vertical maintenance remote handling system for multi module blanket segments in DEMO

The anticipated high neutron flux, and the consequent damage to plasma-facing components in DEMO, results in the need to regularly replace the tritium breeding and radiation shielding blanket. The current European multi module segment (MMS) blanket concept favours a less invasive small port entry maintenance system over large sector transport concepts, because of the reduced impact on other tokamak systems – particularly the magnetic coils. This paper presents a novel conceptual remote maintenance strategy for a Vertical Maintenance Scheme DEMO, incorporating substantiated designs for an in-vessel mover, to detach and attach the blanket segments, and cask-housed vertical maintenance devices to open and close access ports, cut and join service connections, and extract blanket segments from the vessel. In addition, a conceptual architectural model for DEMO was generated to capture functional and spatial interfaces between the remote maintenance equipment and other systems. Areas of further study are identified in order to comprehensively establish the feasibility of the proposed maintenance system.