High gamma-rays irradiation tests of critical components for ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in-vessel remote handling system

In ITER, the in-vessel remote handling is inevitably required to assemble and maintain the activated in-vessel components due to deuterium and tritium operation. Since the in-vessel remote handling system has to be operated under the intense of gamma ray irradiation, the components of the remote handling system are required to have radiation hardness so as to allow maintenance operation for a sufficient length of time under the ITER in-vessel environments. For this, the Japan, European and Russian Home Teams have extensively conducted gamma ray irradiation tests and quality improvements including optimization of material composition through ITER R and D program in order to develop radiation hard components which satisfy the doses from 10 MGy to 100 MGy at a dose rate of 1 x 10{sup 6} R/h (ITER R and D Task: T252). This report describes the latest status of radiation hard component development which has been conducted by the Japan Home Team in the ITER R and D program. The number of remote handling components tested is about seventy and these are categorized into robotics (Subtask 1), viewing system (Subtask 2) and common components (Subtask 3). The irradiation tests, including commercial base products for screening, modified products and newly developed products to improve the radiation hardness, were carried out using the gamma ray irradiation cells in Takasaki Establishment, JAERI. As a result, the development of the radiation hard components which can be tolerable for high temperature and gamma radiation has been well progressed, and many components, such as AC servo motor with ceramics insulated wire, optical periscope and CCD camera, have been newly developed. (author)