ITER lip seal welding and cutting developments

Bruno Levésy*, Jean Jacques Cordier, Tommi Jokinen, Veli P. Kujanpää, Miikka Karhu, Robin Le Barbier, Timo Määttä, Jean-Pierre Martins, Yuri Utin

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The welded lip seals form part of the torus primary vacuum boundary in between the port plugs and the vacuum vessel, and are classified as Protection Important Component. In order to refurbish the port plugs or the in-vessel components, port plugs have to be removed from the machine. The lip seal design must enable up to ten opening of the vacuum vessel during the life time operation of the ITER machine. Therefore proven, remote reliable cutting and re-welding are essential, as these operations need to be performed in the port cells in a nuclear environment, where human presence will be restricted. Moreover, the combination of size of the components to be welded (~10. m long vacuum compatible thin welds) and the congested environment close to the core of the machine constraint the type and size of tools to be used.This paper describes the lip seal cutting and welding development programme performed at the VTT Technical Research Centre, Finland. Potential cutting and welding techniques are analyzed and compared. The development of the cutting, TIG and laser welding techniques on samples are presented. Effects of lip seal misalignments and optimization of the 2 welding processes are discussed. Finally, the manufacturing and test of the two 1.2. m. *. 1. m representative mock-ups are presented. The set-up and use of a robotic arm for the mock-up cutting and welding operations are also described.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1528-1531
    JournalFusion Engineering and Design
    Volume98-99
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed
    Event28th Symposium of Fusion Technology (SOFT) - San Diego, United States
    Duration: 19 Oct 201423 Oct 2014
    Conference number: 23

    Keywords

    • ITER
    • port plug
    • sealing
    • maintenance
    • lip seal

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