A report on the first remote handling operations at JET

The first fully remote handling operations on a fusion Tokamak have been completed at JET. The JET MkIIa divertor has been successfully removed and replaced with the MkII gas box divertor configuration using only remote handling methods inside the JET torus. This shutdown required the handling of over 450 components over a 15 week period operating 20 h per day and 6 days per week. The JET remote handling equipment functioned and performed almost flawlessly with only two significant faults. The total operational time lost due to equipment problems was less than 3 days. The operations proceeded safely and without significant problems. No time was lost due to either operator induced equipment problems or operational errors. A number of new tasks were successfully included in the operations at short notice. Some new tasks were identified immediately before the shutdown but with sufficient time available to test their feasibility using the mock-up facility. Others were only evident after the shutdown had started. The successful implementation of the shutdown and in particular of the unprepared tasks has been due to the high degree of adaptability provided by the JET man-in-the-loop remote handling approach.