Earlier this summer, the University of Southern Denmark opened a new large-scale robotics centre in Odense. This is where EUROfusion will address one of the main unresolved engineering challenges on the path to commercial fusion power: using robots to remove radioactive components from a fusion reactor.
After plasma operations begin inside a fusion reactor, its interior becomes radioactive, leaving human entry for maintenance impossible. Since every component will eventually need replacing, engineers have to find ways to carry out that work remotely, from a safe distance.
But remotely handling a fusion power plant isn’t easy. One of the main challenges is the fact that a fusion reactor has several heavy blanket modules. These blanket steel components can be up to 12 metres tall and weigh as much as 180 tonnes. There’s also the challenge of space: the cage of magnetic coils in these devices severely restricts access to the reactor vessel, limiting it to narrow maintenance ports. As a result, engineers can’t use conventional vertical lifting equipment.
“Think of a crane on a construction site: it lifts straight up, because the cable stays right above the centre of gravity,” says Christian Bachmann, chief engineer at EUROfusion. “We don’t have that luxury.”
To do the heavy lifting, teams need powerful robotic arms to grab each breeding blanket and manoeuvre it along a complex trajectory through the confined access port. Engineers are already testing some remote handling capabilities in ITER, the world’s largest fusion experiment. However, more work is needed to truly make a system that fits what a future fusion power plant demands.
“A commercial fusion power plant has a different layout to ITER, so we can’t just reuse the same tools, especially for the breeding blanket,” Christian explains. “That’s why we’re developing a completely new concept and building this test facility in Denmark.”
The new robotics centre in Odense will let companies develop and test robotics technologies for the production of large-scale structures across different industries. In an extension of the centre, the University of Southern Denmark is also building the world’s strongest robotic arm to develop, demonstrate, and optimise this highly demanding maintenance operation.
Once the robotic arm is ready around late 2026, EUROfusion teams will use it to develop and prove out this new blanket-handling concept: extracting a heavy, irregularly shaped component along a controlled three-dimensional path, through a narrow port, without it swinging out of control.
“Our robotic arm has to grab a component away from its centre of gravity, lift it off and prevent it from swinging while it manoeuvres the load out through a narrow port. That’s the core challenge we’re testing in Denmark,” Christian adds.
Lessons learned in Odense will feed into the maintenance systems of future fusion power plants.