Tooling concepts for ITER tokamak assembly and remote disassembly

Since ITER has many of the characteristics of a full-scale tokamak reactor, its provisions for assembly and replaceability are relevant to a future fusion power plant. The performance of ITER is dependent on tight tolerances, mainly for the magnets and plasma facing components. The magnetic field must be highly uniform in the toroidal direction to ensure good plasma energy and particle confinement. Alignment of the plasma facing surface of the first wall and divertor target plates is required to avoid large local heat loads on the plasma facing components and, as a consequence, their erosion and contamination of the plasma with impurities. Because of the large and heavy components the major challenge of the ITER tokamak assembly is to hold such tight tolerances using guide tools, adjustable interfaces, accurate measuring tools, and specific procedures to compensate for deformation and fabrication tolerances. The assembly tooling plan also includes verification of the essential remote handling operations.