Progress in the design, R&D and procurement preparation of the ITER Divertor Remote Handling System

• The ITER Divertor Remote Handling System (DRHS) reference design is presented.
• Different R&D activities that have contributed to the development and validation of the current reference design are reported.
• The DRHS turns to be a unique system in terms of complexity due to size of the to-be-handled components, the novelty of the remote operations and the operational conditions.

The ITER Divertor Remote Handling System (DRHS) consists of a number of dedicated remote handling equipment and tooling that will provide the means to perform the exchange of the divertor system in a full-remote way. In order to achieve this objective the DRHS will need to perform a number of novel and complex remote operations in a contaminated and space-constrained environment, in rather poor lightening conditions. Fusion for Energy has recently launched the tendering phase for the in-kind procurement of the DRHS. The procurement is based on a set of system requirements and functional specifications supported by a reference design which are presented and discussed in this paper along with the main outcomes of the different R&D activities that have contributed to the development and validation of the current reference design.