Prototyping studies for the Blanket Shield Module of the ITER ECH Upper Port Plug

Abstract

A team of European associations is planning to procure ECH launcher turnkey systems for MHD control in the ITER plasma. ECH launchers will be installed to four ports on the upper level of the ITER vacuum vessel (VV). The structural system of the launchers accommodates the mm-wave components, cooling devices and elements for nuclear shielding. Its main components are the Blanket Shield Module (BSM), including the plasma facing First Wall Panel (FWP) and the port plug mainframe. A removable flange connection between the BSM and the main frame provides access to the internals. Appropriate remote handling capability is also taken as a design requirement. The BSM with the flange connection will be exposed to substantial nuclear heat loads. The manufacturing of machined components requires complex shaping with small tolerances and good quality of the surfaces due to operation under vacuum conditions. For the BSM and the front segment of the main frame a rigid double wall structure with meandering rectangular cooling channels was designed and analysed to meet these requirements. To investigate industrial manufacturing routes, a typical single-piece sample was machined and the manufacturing process was evaluated. Further two prototypes of a characteristic section of the BSM were manufactured, using two different fabrication techniques. These are (a) Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), which combines the sintering of metal powder inside of welded capsules and diffusion welding of solid parts and (b) brazing of bent and machined individual parts. The prototypes are under study at the Launcher Handling Test facility (LHT) at FZK, which offers a water circuit to provide coolant with adjustable parameters, simulating different ITER operating conditions. Extensive test series were performed to validate underlying analysis related to homogenous temperature distribution, tolerable pressure drop within the cooling paths and removal of applied heat loads.