As part of a three-year program of leak localization research and development, a contract between the English company Oxford Technologies and the ITER Organization (IO) to develop a concept design for a Fast Deployment Device (FDD) for leak localization on ITER was kicked off this week.

Under the scope of the contract, Oxford Technologies will develop the concept design of the FDD which is a quickly-deployable, remotely-operated dexterous device capable of carrying a light payload of sensors dedicated to the localization of leaks in the main ITER Vacuum Vessel and/or Cryostat.

It is envisaged that the FDD will form part of the overall leak localization system which comprises several complementary sub-systems developed to localize the range of potential leaks on ITER.