Structural analysis of alternative designs for the ITER vacuum vessel and support

Abstract The ITER vacuum vessel (VV) consists of three main sub-components; main vessel, port structures and the VV supporting system. In this study, the modified designs for the main vessel and the supporting system have been proposed, and the stress analyses have been conducted to investigate their structural integrities. In the original design of the main vessel, the assembling works of the flexible support housing into the outer shell is so difficult that the modified design concept is suggested for easier fabrication. To simplify the VV supporting system for better maintainability and to reduce its fabricating cost, the multi-flexible plates with rigid restraint for the VV support have been proposed. The flexible plate support is surrounded by a rigid restraint with a rectangular cask. As a result of this study, the availability to adopt the modified design concept of the supporting system as well as the main vessel in the ITER VV design has been reviewed.