Assembly and remote handling of ITER plasma facing components

The assembly and remote maintenance of the plasma-facing components of ITER presents major challenges for the construction, operation and maintenance of ITER. The main plasma-facing components, the divertor and the blankets, are large components, with exceptionally demanding alignment requirements, and require complex support systems to sustain loads under normal and off-normal operational conditions. The plasma-facing components are designed to be maintained using special remote handling (RH) tools. These tools and the associated RH systems and processes are currently undergoing detailed design and certain key processes have been subject to extensive R&D / prototyping activities.