Concept Design and Development of the Multipurpose Deployer (MPD) for Large Port-Based Tokamaks

The multipurpose deployer (MPD) is a remote handling equipment for performing different tasks, such as in-vessel diagnostics, inspection, vacuum cleaning, and leak detection and localization. The structure of the MPD and its tools must be designed, considering all the aspects inside the vacuum vessel (VV) and outside. There is different but comparable equipment in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), Joint European Torus (JET), and China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), due to different equatorial port configurations; similarly, the concept design of this MPD must be tailored for a reference port-based tokamak configuration that can be expected for demonstration power plant (DEMO) VV. In this article, a new structure of the MPD has been proposed, combining the strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of MPDs. The structure of the MPD discussed in this article is a candidate for port-based tokamak configurations, including DEMO. The workspace meets the requirements for large area maintenance operations in candidate port-based tokamak configurations, MPD operates stably with minimal deformation under heavy loads up to 1 ton, and it meets the design requirements. Moreover, the new design MPD reduces one of the joints with the highest output torque compared to the MPD for ITER and CFETR. The MPD can be folded in cask, the packaged volume is smaller, and the deformation is lesser under the full load compared to the initial concept of the MPD.