New achievements of the Divertor Test Platform programme for the ITER divertor remote maintenance R&D

The divertor assembly for the ITER fusion reactor consists of a number of rail mounted cassettes (54 now in ITER FEAT) located in the bottom region of the vacuum vessel. These cassettes shall be removed/installed remotely during the life of the reactor by means of specific devices. To demonstrate and optimise the feasibility of the in-vessel maintenance process the Divertor Test Platform (DTP) has been established at the ENEA Research Centre in Brasimone, Italy, as a major part of the large ITER R&D project L7. A first set of tests has been already carried out and reported during 1998, when the basic feasibility of the divertor replacement was demonstrated. In the present period (January 1999–July 2000), new activities, including both site tests and other “external” R&D works, have been carried out in order to refine and improve the ITER divertor maintenance scenario. These include the study of abnormal maintenance operations and of possible handling equipment failure and its consequences; the procurement and testing of new sub-systems (e.g. a force reflection manipulator arm), and the development of remote handling techniques including a virtual reality system. Following a short description of the DTP, this paper reports on the new results and achievements, draws the relevant conclusions, and finally discusses future activities.