Rescue and recovery studies for the DEMO blanket transporter

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design 2019-09, Vol.146, p.2494-2497
• Main Authors: Budden, Stuart, Agudo, Victor, Barturen, Ane, Hannoun, Luis, Keep, Jonathan, Loving, Antony, Shaughnessy, Paul, Keech, Gregory
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blanket transporter; DEMO; Failure analysis; Failure modes; Hazard identification; Kinematics; Redundancy; Remote maintenance; Rescue & recovery; Tokamak devices; Tritium; Vessels
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2019.04.026

RACE has been developing a Blanket Transporter concept for the replacement of tritium breeding blankets within the EUROfusion DEMO tokamak. This operation will be challenging due to the scale of the blankets (˜10 m & 80 tonnes) and the current vessel design, which necessitates complex blanket kinematics within the vessel prior to a high vertical lift through the upper port. The blanket transporter is a key high technical risk system and break-down rescue and recovery has been highlighted as a significant unaddressed risk. This paper outlines the processes used to identify the key hazards resulting from failure scenarios and the improvements made to the concept design to mitigate them. Failure modes were identified via industrial expert input, failure and hazard analyses. Mitigation of the failure scenarios was achieved by providing secondary load paths in the main structure, redundancy in key components and the inclusion of additional features that allowed secondary rescue equipment to engage to assist rescue.