The structure is organised along the following five major topics (WP1-WP5)

Work Programmes
WP1 (CEA)  Network Management
WP2 (CEA)  Lifecycle from the engineering design to commissioning of a major in vessel component of
  Tore-Supra
WP3 (CEA)  Maintainability associated to ITER Component Lifecycle
WP4 (IPP.CR)  Restart activities of COMPASS tokamak
WP5 (ENEA Fra)  Virtual prototyping and virtual maintenance of FAST tokamak components




Host Association: CEA

Associations: IPP.CR, ENEA Fra

Objective

In this training programme a significant emphasis is placed on the management and co-ordination of the tasks between the different Associations and with EFDA. The aim is to combine as far as possible the training between the different Associations to provide a broad training, both theoretical and practical, for the trainees.
To this aim the project will be supervised by a Co-ordination board consisting of the Project Management team, who will be responsible for the day to day running of the project, and the personal supervisors of the individual trainees. Further details of the project management arrangements are given in Annex 3.
Interaction with EFDA will be on a regular basis; deliverables and milestones have been defined to ensure that the management of the programme will fulfil EFDA requirements.



Host Association: CEA

Associations: IPP.CR, ENEA Fra

Companies/Industrials: CNIM

   

Objective

In the frame of WP2, the trainee will be involved in the life cycle (from design to commissioning) of a major component (in vessel component, antenna or diagnostic) to be installed in the Tore-Supra Tokamak. To this end he/she will be incorporated in the IPM (French acronym of Ingénierie des Projets Mécaniques) team.

The IPM group is responsible for providing the human resources and skills needed to manage and complete mechanical engineering projects in the CEA Fusion Institute of Cadarache. This group is organized so it can support and manage projects within the scope of work of ITER Organization, Tore-Supra, JET or JT60SA.

The group is structured through 4 main activities: engineering, design office, quality control and manufacturing monitoring.

This group has significant experience in fusion technology through the 20 years’ experience of Tore-Supra and has been improving for a long time the quality and traceability of its deliverables. Today, new working methods associated with international collaboration (laboratory and industry) are needed and emerging requirements in terms of nuclear engineering or remote handling are arising. The group is thus reinforcing its skills in these domains, namely through the implementation of a virtual reality room in order to optimise the design phase or through the development of CAD methodology to exchange and share complex data in an efficient way between partners.

Through the training period the trainee’s activities will cover the entire engineering field of the IPM group which will be extended to the assembly and the commissioning of major components to be installed in the Tokamak Tore-Supra.

A training period with an industrial partner (such as CNIM) on relevant topics is planned during the training program in order to address design studies and component manufacture. Concerning Tokamak integration issues, case studies will be applied to ITER and W7X and visiting periods will be planned in both facilities.


Candidate and training profile:

The candidate will be a master graduate nuclear engineer, mechanical engineer or equivalent with basic knowledge of mechanical engineering and design, manufacturing and assembly process with less than 4 years of professional experience. The planned activities will offer the trainee an environment where he / she can gain experience towards engineering of large components with a specialization in fusion technology as well as in basic project management.


Description of Work

Technical programme

During the first two years of the training program, the trainee will focus on courses and specialization on the scientific topic of the program. The trainee will attend an important number of courses detailed below:


Introductory courses - first year


Specific courses on generic issues - To be completed throughout the project

Additionally, missing skills should be added. The program will be flexible enough to adapt to the trainee’s specific abilities, wishes and the exact starting date of the training program.


Involvement in mechanical engineering and Tokamak integration issues - 15 months

During the whole program, the trainee will be integrated in a project team. He/she will participate more and more actively with the project team in a major upgrade of Tore-Supra, in order to apply his/her specific skills in fusion engineering. In particular, he/she will take part in these specific activities:


Involvement in Tokamak integration issues - 2 months

Concerning Tokamak integration issues, case studies will be applied to ITER and W7X and visiting periods will be planned in both facilities.


Manufacturing and assembly issues - 15 months

The trainee will also take an active part in the manufacturing activities in relation to a major component of a Tore-Supra upgrade.


Manufacturing follow-up for Tore-Supra components will be possible depending on the actions in progress on those projects. The trainee could also work on manufacturing issues in collaboration with industrial partners. A training period with an industrial partner (such as CNIM -1 month) on relevant topics is planned during the training program in order to address design studies and component manufacture.

The goal of this training program is to allow the trainee to become more and more autonomous. By the end of the program, he/she shall be able to take the lead in several tasks and manage them from beginning to end. Frequent discussions within the working group are foreseen to keep the program on track.


Technical programme in IPP.CR Laboratory - 2 months

During this 2 month visit the training programme will concentrate on CATIA design of components for the COMPASS diagnostic and heating system. In particular, the trainee shall participate in the design of the Objective Lens support and shift for the Thomson scattering diagnostics.

Furthermore, the trainee will be involved in the setup of a server repository for tokamak models in CATIA (Enovia).

Technical programme in ENEA Fra Laboratory - 2 months

The trainee will be hosted for 2 months at ENEA. The program will be focused on the modelling of FAST Tokamak components in the CATIA V5 environment and on Remote Handling simulations of FAST Tokamak components in a Virtual Environment. Fundamentals of robust design methodologies and Design of Experiments (DoE) techniques, useful during concept design activities in VR, will be also provided to the trainee.



Host Association: CEA

Associations: IPP.CR, ENEA Fra

Companies / Industrials: CNIM, AREVA TA, CYBERNETIX

       

Objective

The fusion reaction needs high magnetic fields, produces high energy neutrons and generates very high temperatures. These severe conditions make first wall components highly constrained and causes wear. Thus, many parts of this region must be replaced or refurbished during the reactor’s life.

The maintenance of a reactor in service is a critical point, because it directly affects the availability of the machine and its economical productivity. Even if the goal of ITER is not to be an industrial reactor, it is essential to consider its maintainability for at least two major reasons: the first is to have powerful experimental equipment available, and the second is to demonstrate that maintenance by remote handling is possible for the further steps.

In such a complex assembly, it is quite impossible to consider that all the parts are easily removable. Thus, it is necessary to preliminarily identify what elements must be replaced or refurbished and how often. Moreover, following the definition of component locations within the whole assembly, maintenance schemes must be clearly planned. In the case of a replacement, it is obviously necessary to safely handle the components, and in the majority of refurbishment cases, the operations are not made in-situ but in the Hot Cell. The logistics of this kind of facility must take into account the planned operations, but also the fact that some components could need to be replaced due to unexpected failure.

For a machine like ITER, maintenance is a very hard challenge, due to its size and environment conditions. The maintenance operations cannot be performed “hands-on” by personnel because the level of radiation of the activated components is too high. This is especially true for the In-Vessel components and materials. This is the reason why remote handling is one of the most important issues for the whole project. The maintenance, and especially “remote maintenance” must be taken as design constraints, like those induced by the mechanical and thermal loads and the behaviour under magnetic field and inside vacuum. On the other hand, integration and assembly issues on W7X are challenging due to the complex shape of the components, and must be simulated in the early design.

The trainee will have access to the CEA IRFM Virtual reality (VR) platform and will have to design the maintenance scenario with special tools used in the VR platform.

The developments that will be performed during the training period could be tested on the tokamak Tore-Supra in order to prove the feasibility on a real tokamak environment.

A training period with an industrial partner (such as CNIM) on relevant topics is planned during the training program in order to address design studies and component manufacture. Concerning Tokamak integration issues, case studies will be applied to ITER and W7X and visiting periods will be planned in both facilities.


Candidate and training profile:

This trainee will be a master graduate mechanical engineer, preferably with good skills in maintenance processes, with less than 4 years’ experience in research or science. Experience in the field of Virtual Reality and/or simulation will be appreciated. The candidate should gather enough knowledge to become an expert in the ITER Maintenance Plan mainly for the In-vessel elements (comprising all attached features ex-vessel).

As the thermonuclear reactor has to support the ITER project’s scientific mission during a long period, it is necessary to consider the full system lifecycle in the design phase. All the phases of a component’s life (e.g. manufacturing, testing, commissioning, installation in the VV, maintenance scheme, decommissioning, and dismantling) should be taken into account. Special attention should be paid to the maintenance strategy that is strongly linked with the radiation levels (safety).


Description of Work

Technical programme

During the first two years of the training program, the trainee will be focused on courses and specialization on the scientific topic of the program. The trainee will attend an important number of courses detailed below:


Introductory courses - first year


Specific courses on generic issues - To be completed through the program

In order to complete the courses, the trainee could spend some time (around 1 month) in French nuclear companies (e.g. CNIM, AREVA TA, CYBERNETIX) in order to:


R&D on the ITER port-plug engineering and integration - 15 months

The trainee will participate in the ITER port-plug engineering and integration projects (diagnostics, TBMs, ICRH antenna) in order to apply his specific skills in maintenance processes in the frame of the project. In particular, he will take part in these specific activities:


Involvement in Tokamak integration issues – 2 months

Concerning Tokamak integration issues, case studies will be applied to ITER and W7X and visiting periods will be planned in both facilities.


Development of maintenance strategies – 15 months

For each port plug or component in the cryostat and in vessel there will be common maintenance aspects and specific activities. The trainee (with the help of the port plug and integration experts) will identify and detail the operations and associated features:

This development should be done with each partner involved in the program in order to try to standardise maintenance procedures.


Technical programme in IPP.CR Laboratory - 2 months

During this 2 month visit the training programme will concentrate on CATIA design of components of the COMPASS diagnostic and heating system. In particular, the trainee will participate in the design of the lower hybrid heating system support structure.

Furthermore, the trainee will be involved in the setup of a server repository for tokamak models in CATIA (Enovia).

Technical programme in ENEA Fra Laboratory - 2 months

The trainee will be hosted 2 months by ENEA. The program will be focused on modelling of FAST Tokamak components in the CATIA V5 environment and on Remote Handling simulations of FAST Tokamak components in a Virtual Environment. Fundamentals of robust design methodologies and Design of Experiments (DoE) techniques, useful during concept design activities in VR, will be also provided to the trainee.



Host Association: IPP.CR

Associations: CEA, ENEA Fra

Companies / Industrials:

Universities: CTU Prague

           

Objective

ITER as well as the Associations operating the existing experimental devices need trained engineers with a high level of understanding of both the technology and physics possibilities and limitations of tokamak operation. In the long-term fusion programme, preparation of a new generation of control room staff, capable of planning the commissioning, restart, and operation activities, is essential.

The COMPASS device is a small scale experiment offering hands-on experience and thus providing deeper insight and understanding for the trainee. Therefore, the trainee will be dedicated to participation in the COMPASS restart activities, trained in COMPASS operation and involved in the commissioning of its systems.

Concerning Tokamak integration issues, case studies will be applied to ITER and W7X. Visiting periods will be planned in both facilities in order to get acquainted with the respective CODAC systems.


Candidate and trainee profile

The candidate will have a master or Ph.D. diploma in plasma physics, physical engineering or electrical engineering with a basic knowledge of tokamak physics and less than 5 years of professional experience. The planned activities will offer the trainee an environment where he / she can gain experience in tokamak operation with specialization in planning and restart as well as in systems commissioning.


Description of work

Technical programme

During the first two years of the program, the trainee will attend a number of courses and the training will concentrate on participation in the machine operation planning, commissioning of a power supply system (described below), and control room training.


Introductory courses - during the first year


Specific courses on generic issues - To be done all along the project


Control room training (8 months)

The trainee will be trained in the COMPASS operation to obtain the operator license. For this, the trainee will get acquainted with:


Commissioning of power supply system (8 months)

The trainee will be involved in commissioning of the newly built power supply system for plasma vertical kicks (wobbling) and resonant magnetic perturbation. The trainee will be acquainted with the power supply design and parameters. Consequently, he/she will be involved in:


Planning of the restart and operation activities (4 months)

The trainee will be further involved in planning of the restart activities after shut downs. He / she will get acquainted with and be involved in:


Relation between the plasma modelling and the experiment (10 months)

As an extension of the operator training, further involvement of the trainee is foreseen in the modelling of the plasma response using a non-linear code (MAXFEA and/or PROTEUS) and in its comparison with the experimental observations. In this area, the trainee will:


Technical programme in CEA Laboratory (2 months)

The trainee will be hosted for 2 months at CEA. The program will be focused on simulation of maintenance scenarios and on Remote Handling simulations of ITER Tokamak components in the virtual reality room of the CEA fusion institute. CAD design and engineering analysis could also be foreseen.

Technical programme in ENEA Fra Laboratory (2 months)

The trainee will be hosted 2 months at ENEA. The program will be focused on modelling of FAST Tokamak components in the CATIA V5 environment and on Remote Handling simulations of FAST Tokamak components in Virtual Environment. Fundamentals of robust design methodologies and Design of Experiments (DoE) techniques, useful during concept design activities in VR, will be also provided to the trainee.

Programme in W7X laboratory and at ITER (1+1 month)

A visiting period of 1 month will be planned in each of the two facilities. The tokamak integration issues, related particularly to the CODAC systems will be topics for the visits to IPP Greifswald and ITER.



Host Association: ENEA Fra

Associations: CEA, IPP.CR

Companies / Industrials: VTT Research Center in Tampere Finland, CREATE

Universities: University of Naples Federico II

               

Objective

Virtual prototyping technology has become a very valued tool in the early phases of product design in general, and of tokamak systems in particular. The use of virtual reality (VR) technologies has been and still is of special interest in the development of several tokamak maintenance devices, mainly due to the large costs, sizes and complexity of physical prototypes. For example the use of virtual prototyping in ITER maintenance is vital in the design and training of the maintenance procedures and was essential, in the past decade, in the development of the Divertor Test Platform (DTP) in ENEA Brasimone Research Center and of the DTP-2 in the VTT Research Center in Tampere (Finland). The use of virtual models since the concept design phase of a tokamak system, allows several Remote Handling (RH) solutions to be compared, showing them in real scale on a large screen. The optimal choice could result from the application of Robust Design methodologies, DoE (Design of Experiments) techniques and evaluation sessions in immersive VR environment, involving the whole design team. The objective of the proposed work-package is to develop a VR-based approach that allows the choice of the optimal design solutions of a tokamak subsystem according to maintenance requirements, as well as to structural requirements. The trainee will have access to the CAD laboratory and to the Virtual Reality facility of the University of Naples Federico II, and will take into account as a case study the ITER satellite FAST, conceived at ENEA Fra. In order to study the maintainability of a FAST sub-system, he will firstly identify and classify the design factors and the noise factors; then he will generate several virtual prototypes and concept solutions that will be successively analyzed and tested in the Virtual Reality Lab.

A training period with a Research Centre partner (such as VTT) on relevant topics is planned during the training program in order to address design studies. Concerning Tokamak integration issues, case studies will be applied to ITER and W7X and visiting periods will be planned in both facilities.


Candidate and training profile:

This trainee will be a master graduate industrial engineer, preferably with good skills in CAD modelling and VR technologies, with experience in mechanical design and assembly/disassembly process simulations. The candidate should gather enough knowledge to become an expert in the virtual maintenance of tokamak systems, comprising firstly ITER and its satellite tokamaks and, in the future, DEMO and its new satellite devices.


Description of work


Technical programme

During the first two years of the training program, the trainee will be focused on courses and specialisation on the scientific topic of the program. The courses are detailed below.


Introductory courses - first year


Specific courses on generic issues - To be done all along the project

In order to complete the courses, the trainee could spend some time in ENEA Brasimone research centre and in VTT research centre (Tampere – Finland).


R&D on the FAST divertor and first-wall engineering design- 14 months

The trainee will participate in the FAST divertor and first-wall Remote Handling analyses, in order to apply his specific skills in 3D CAD modelling, virtual prototyping and virtual maintenance simulations in the frame of the project. In particular, he/she will take part to these specific activities:


Involvment in Tokamak integration issues- 2 months

Concerning Tokamak integration issues, case studies will be applied to ITER and W7X and visiting periods will be planned in both facilities.


Development of maintenance strategies - 15 months

For divertor and first wall, there will be common maintenance aspects and specific activities. The trainee (with the help of ENEA Fra. experts) will identify and detail the operations and associated features:

This development should be done with each partner involved in the program in order to take benefit of this time to try standardising the maintenance procedures. A training period with a Research Centre partner (such as VTT) on relevant topics is planned during the training program in order to address design studies and remote handling strategies.


Technical programme in CEA Laboratory (2 months)

The trainee will be hosted 2 months at CEA. The program will be focused on simulation of maintenance scenario and on Remote Handling simulations of ITER Tokamak components in the virtual reality room of the CEA fusion institute. CAD design and engineering analysis could also be foreseen.

Technical programme in IPP.CR Laboratory (2 months)

During this 2 month mission to IPP.CR, the training programme will concentrate on CATIA design of components of the COMPASS diagnostic and heating system. In particular, the trainee shall participate in the design of a diaphragm in the NBI heating beam duct. Furthermore, the trainee will be involved in the setup of a server repository for tokamak models in CATIA (Enovia).

Technical programme in VTT Research Center in Tampere Finland (1 month)

The trainee will be hosted 1 month by VTT. The program will be focused on study and simulation of maintenance scenarios and on Remote Handling simulations of the ITER divertor. Design studies, CAD design and engineering analysis with DELMIA on divertor, rails and RH equipment could also be foreseen.