BPX commitment to total remote maintenance

A study was undertaken to investigate how the BPX (Burning Plasma Experiment) project would be affected if the capability to recover from a coil failure were required. Potential effects including configuration changes to the machine and facility, project cost, and project operation were considered. It was revealed that it is feasible to design BPX for remote recovery from any coil failure. However, for this to be accomplished effectively, it is imperative to incorporate the necessary remote maintenance features of the components to be remotely replaced into the original design along with all of the other functional features. The remote maintenance capability cannot be retrofitted after the design is complete or the equipment is built. The cost of incorporating the capability for remote replacement would be less than 6% of the total project costs. Replacement of a failed TF coil would require approximately two years