Maintenance and Disassembly Considerations for the Technology Demonstration Facility

The Technology Demonstration Facility (TDF) is a tandem mirror design concept carried out under the direction of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It was conceived as a near-term device with a mission of developing engineering technology in a D-T fusion environment. Overall maintenance and component disassembly were among the responsibilities of the Fusion Engineering Design Center (FEDC). A configuration evolved that was based on the operational requirements of the components, as well as the requirements for their replacements. Component lifetime estimates were used to estimate the frequency and the number of replacements. In addition, it was determined that the need for remote handling equipment followed within 1.5 years after initial start-up, emphasizing the direct relationship betweem developing maintenance scenarios/equipment and the device configuration. Many of the scheduled maintenance operations were investigated to first order, and preliminary handling equipment concepts were developed.