The £2.7m project has taken seven years to develop as part of EUROfusion’s flagship DEMO programme, which is expected to be the successor to ITER – the experimental fusion reactor currently under construction in France.
The snake will be deployed and operated remotely inside a hazardous environment without being touched by humans. It can also work effectively in pipes packed together, with little space for access.
Tristan Tremethick, lead mechanical design engineer, UKAEA, said: “In fusion machines, pipework has to be connected and disconnected remotely because of the hazardous environment.
“Pipework in DEMO is extra challenging because of the limited working space. We’ve been looking at different ways of tackling this and I’m delighted our new snake has passed its first set of trials.
“The bespoke laser welding tool takes a novel approach and operates inside of the pipework to make best use of the cramped space available.”
The project also...