Fit for the future: remote handling

On 15 and 16 June, the third annual PREFIT workshop (Preparation of Remote Handling Engineers for ITER - http://www.prefit.eu/) hosted by the CEA. The workshop was attended by approximately 40 engineers from 17 organizations and 6 countries. The six PREFIT PhD researchers presented their work and eight invited specialists presented various topical aspects of remote handling research from various application sectors. The participants were also given the opportunity to see and participate in demonstrations of remote handling work being done at CEA List.

PREFIT is in the third year of its four-year program funded by the European Commission under the European Fusion Training Scheme (EFTS) initiative. The PREFIT training is delivered by four partners: Oxford Technologies Ltd, CEA, Tampere University of Technology and VTT Technical Research Centre. Over the next year, this collaboration will produce six PhD-level qualified engineers able to work on ITER remote handling challenges. Previous workshops were hosted by Oxford Technologies Ltd in the UK and TUT/VTT in Finland.

The PREFIT researchers have over the past three years conducted ITER-relevant research and participated in on-the-job training at partner sites for six-month periods. The annual two-day workshop is held immediately following an annual two-week PREFIT Summer School at which the PREFIT researchers participate in intensive classroom/lab type training in the areas of specialization by each partner.

The PREFIT scheme will cease to exist in its present form when the EFTS contract expires in 2010, but discussions are ongoing for a new scheme under the Goal Oriented Training Scheme (GOTS) initiative.