Remote Handling

IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility-DEMO Oriented Neutron Source) is currently being developed in the frame of the EUROfusion Early Neutron Source work package (WPENS). It will be an installation for fusion material testing, that will generate a flux of neutrons of 10 18 m −2 s −1 with a broad peak at 14 MeV by Li(d,xn) nuclear reactions thanks to a deuteron beam colliding on a liquid Li flow. The accelerator system is in charge of providing such high energy deuterons in order to produce the neutron flux expected. The objective of the Beam Dump, part of the High Energy Beam Transport Line (HEBT), is to stop the pulsed beam at low duty cycle during DONES accelerator commissioning and start-up phases. The present work explains the radiological design of the beam dump shielding and two different configuration approaches for the materialization of the design. The radiological design considers maintenance and operation, and it was done together with the building walls dimensioning so that the combined radiation attenuation by the local shield and the building leads to dose rates in the different rooms that satisfy the requirements. Activation of the materials in the HEBT line, originated by the leakage of neutrons through the beam dump entrance is evaluated and an ad-hoc solution is proposed for its minimization. Regarding the mechanical design, in the first configuration, the shielding is split into two halves horizontally, the upper-half requiring external lifting capabilities for its commission and maintenance. The second approach consists in a vertical splitting into two halves, which are self-moveable, avoiding the needs of external lifting capabilities for the remote handling of the shielding.

The design and development of robotic end effectors for a specific operation in Industry has been an active research area for a long while. The main objective here is to design a robotic gripper for achievement of sufficient level of dexterity in the domain of grasping and manipulation when attached to any Remote Handling (RH) arm. The work presented includes a thorough study of different gripper mechanisms along with kinematic assessment of gripper for pick-and-place operation, design & FEA analysis of the gripper frame. The gripper designed is within a specified envelope with a maximum opening of 5cm and payload capacity 1 kg.
This thesis presents the structural analysis of two fingered gripper working with a parallelogram mechanism and a single actuator. Analytical calculations and analysis were performed to verify the structural integrity of the gripper mechanism and to calculate the necessary reaction forces required during component handling.