Overview of the ITER remote maintenance design and of the development activities in Europe

•ITER Remote Maintenance is a complex, novel challenge and opportunity for industry.•Europe is a major contributor for ITER Remote Handling development.•The on-going multiple design and R&D tasks involves many industries and labs.•Strong coordination effort is required to keep technical and schedule coherence. For a first-of-a-kind nuclear fusion reactor like ITER, remote maintainability of neutron-activated and contaminated components is one of the key aspects of plant design and operations, hence a fundamental ingredient of its success, as well as of the demonstration of long-term viability of fusion as an energy source. The whole ITER Remote Maintenance System (IRMS) is of unprecedented complexity and includes specifically developed technologies. Its procurement and start of operation will represent a major innovation to maintenance in hostile environments. Europe is a key contributor, with three remote handling (RH) systems, a.k.a. packages, plus a robotic inspection and metrology tool, currently under design. This paper gives an update on the status of design and procurement activities related to the IRMS. It will first introduce some key aspects of the reactor remote maintainability, and then give an overview of the present configuration of the global system. After this, the scope, status and challenges of the European (EU) packages will be illustrated in more detail, together with some key technological developments. Finally, the way all these efforts are coordinated will be presented together with the overall implementation scenario and milestones, and the way they fit with ITER construction and operation.