Remote Maintenance

Activated reactor components must be serviced remotely. A low-neutron design with demountable magnets makes maintenance faster and cheaper for Kronos.

Why

Activated components can't be hand-serviced

Method

Robotic handling behind shielding

Kronos eases it

Low activation + demountable magnets

Payoff

Higher availability, lower cost

Remote maintenance is the robotic servicing of reactor components that have become too activated to approach by hand. How quickly and cheaply a plant can be maintained largely determines its availability, so remote-maintenance design is an economic issue as much as a safety one.

Two Kronos choices make maintenance easier. Because the plant is low-neutron, components are far less activated than in a D–T machine, so more work can be done sooner and with lighter shielding. And the demountable magnets open access to the vacuum vessel that welded coils would block. Together they shorten maintenance outages — directly supporting the high capacity factor the economics assume.