<title>Laser vision sensor for in-vessel inspection of fusion reactors</title>

Abstract

An optical amplitude modulated laser radar has been developed for periodic in-vessel inspection in large fusion machines and its overall optical aiming is developed taking into account the extremely high radiation levels and operating temperatures foreseen in the large European fusion machines (JET and ITER). In this paper an in vessel viewing system based on a transceiving optical radar using an RF modulated single mode 840 nm wavelength laser beam is illustrated. The sounding beam is transmitted through a coherent optical fiber and a focusing collimator to the inner part of the vessel by a stainless steel probe on the tip of which a suitable scanning silica prism steers the laser beam along a linear raster spanning a -90 degree to +90 degree in elevation and 360 degrees in azimuth for a complete mapping of the vessel itself. All the electronics, including laser source, avalanche photodiode and all the active components are located outside the bioshield, while passive components (receiving optics, transmitting collimator, fiber optics), located in the torus hall, are in fused silica so that the overall vision system is radiation resistant. The Active and passive components are contained in separated stainless steel boxes connected through two silica fiber optics. The laser radiation backscattered by the resolved surface element of the vessel is received by a collecting silica optics and remotely transmitted through a multimode fiber on the surface of an avalanche photodiode detector located in the active module at 120 m distance. The received signal is then acquired, the raster lines being synchronized with the aid of optical encoders linked to the scanning prism, to give a TV like image. The scanning accuracy expected in scanning process is less than 1 mm at 10 m of distance: this is a suitable resolution to yield a high quality image showing all the damages due to plasma disruptions. Preliminary results have been obtained scanning large sceneries including several real targets having different light backscattering properties, colors and surfaces reflectivity ranging over several decades to simulate the expected dynamic range of the video signals incoming from the vessel.