A large divertor manipulator for ASDEX Upgrade

In 2013 a new bulk tungsten divertor, Div-III, was installed in ASDEX Upgrade (AUG). During the concept and design phase of Div-III the option of adaptable divertor instrumentation and divertor modification as contribution for divertor investigations in preparation of ITER was given a high priority. To gain flexibility for the test of divertor modifications without affecting the operational space of AUG, the large divertor manipulator, DIM-II, was designed and installed. DIM-II allows to retract 2 out of 128 outer divertor target tiles including the water cooled support structure into a target exchange box and to replace these targets without breaking the vacuum of the AUG vessel. DIM-II is based on a carriage-rail system with a driving rod pushing a front-end with the target module into the divertor position for plasma operation. Three types of front-ends are foreseen for physics investigations: (i) modified standard targets clamped to the standard cooling structure, (ii) dedicated front-ends making use of the whole available volume of about 230 × 160 × 80 mm 3 and (iii) actively cooled/heated targets for cooling water temperatures up to 230 °C. This paper presents the DIM-II design including the FEM calculations for the modified divertor support structure and the front-end options, as well as the test procedure and operation mode.