Manufacturing design of typical attachments in the vacuum vessel of ITER

Abstract The vacuum vessel is a nuclear fusion engineering equipment in ITER. One of its functions is to support various components under different loading conditions during normal and off-normal operations. In order to provide the support to these components, many attachments shall be welded on the wall of the vacuum vessel. Therefore, the manufacturing design of the vacuum vessel should take into account the requirements for permanent welded attachment on nuclear pressure equipment. However, the application of these requirements into the design of attachment is not straightforward, due to conflicted rules, complex configuration and complicated operating loads of the vacuum vessel. Manufacturing design, regulatory requirements, applicable codes and standards, key design factors and types of typical attachment in sector 6 are summarized in this paper. The latest practice of Sector 6 is considered as it is the first of a kind among sectors. By rule, design verification on this platform is introduced as one example of manufacturing design of typical attachment. The result of this paper could be applied to manufacturing design of any other attachments permanently welded to the vacuum vessel wall.