Description of need
According to Venu Varma at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the neutron irradiation in a Nuclear fusion reactor can be as high as 1E5 Sv/hr and 1E5 W/m3 heat.
A comparison with Nuclear fission is helpful:
- In a PWR, all the fuel elements are inside water, so water does a good amount of shielding. You can go to do maintenance inside the reactor.
- In fusion, we don’t have this luxury. Will need to do remote maintenance, i.e. remove and store large, highly radioactive components.
Utility connections are also a challenge, especially:
- the vacuum vessel seal
- the coolant seal
- the blanket seal
Problem severity (1-10)
Who has this need
Total addressable market (TAM)
Solutions today, and their shortcomings
Potentially relevant capabilities
Remote handling requires Cameras that work in high-radiation environments