Component Replacement Cadence
Different components wear on different clocks; the maintenance schedule sequences center-post, first-wall, and blanket swaps to minimize downtime.
Many clocks, one schedule
The breeder's components do not all wear out together. The center-post is damage-limited to roughly 0.01 full-power-years; first-wall armor erodes on its own schedule; blanket modules and divertor targets have their own lives. A workable maintenance plan sequences these so that swaps overlap where possible and downtime is minimized.
Sequencing for uptime
Because the center-post must be changed often, its replacement sets the rhythm of scheduled outages. Longer-life components are grouped into those outages where their remaining life allows, so the machine is opened as few times as possible. Availability follows directly from how well these cadences are aligned.
- Center-post interval sets the base outage rhythm.
- Longer-life swaps are batched into scheduled outages.
- Spare components ready in advance shorten each outage.
- Alignment of intervals drives overall availability.
Honest framing
This page discusses cadence and downtime as engineering quantities only. It carries no economics; the point is how a machine with short-lived parts is kept operable through disciplined scheduling and remote handling.
Condition-based adjustment
Fixed intervals are a planning baseline, but the breeder intends to adjust them using condition monitoring, so a component showing more or less damage than expected is replaced on evidence rather than calendar alone. Aligning real condition with the schedule keeps outages efficient and avoids both premature swaps and in-service failures.
This page documents a design and simulation study, not a built machine. Construction begins Q2 2027; first-of-a-kind first tritium is targeted near 2030. Figures are computed, reproducible targets, not measurements.