Design and implementation of cask system for EAST remote maintenance

Abstract

An in-vessel maintenance robot called AIA has been developed by CEA to perform remote visual inspection inside the Tore Supra vacuum vessel during plasma. A project to upgrade the AIA into a fully operational robot has been undertaken with the collaboration between CEA-IRFM and ASIPP. Meanwhile, a new version of the robot called EAMA (EAST Articulated Maintenance Arm) is being developed in an Associated Laboratory for EAST in-vessel maintenance. For this purpose, a storage cask has been designed to provide vacuum and temperature conditioning and an interface to the EAST vacuum vessel for AIA (before) and EAMA (after).The cask system is composed of pumping system, baking system and cooling system. The control system of cask has been designed to ensure the well-prepared condition for robot deployment inside EAST vacuum vessel. The cask commissioning and the AIA deployment inside EAST have been presented to validate the feasibility of the cask system. This paper introduces the implementation of key technologies of cask system and presents the campaign activities.