Fusion Engineering and Design 87 (2012) 652–656

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Fusion Engineering and Design

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A functional approach for managing ITER operations

Didier van Houtte ∗ , François Sagot, Katsumi Okayama, Kenneth Blackler
ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 Saint Paul Lez Durance, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: ITER is currently the most ambitious project on nuclear fusion research. Its objective is to demonstrate
Available online 26 February 2012 the feasibility of fusion as an energy source for the future. The complexity of the systems required to meet
this challenge present many opportunities for omissions or incorrect assumptions. System engineering
Keywords: allows the engineer to deal with such a complexity by developing a Functional Breakdown Structure
Fusion (FBS). Unlike a Plant Breakdown Structure (PBS), the FBS is a function-oriented tree, not a product-
ITER
oriented tree. It details operations or activities that have to be performed as needed functions of the
Operations
architecture, allowing identification of any missing elements, defining the personnel skills required to
FBS
Availability
operate the architecture and managing the machine availability.
Life Cycle Cost © 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction it possible to check that all basic functions needed to operate

ITER has to demonstrate the feasibility of magnetic fusion
energy and to operate as a safe, sustainable, dependable device
at a reasonable cost. Initially described in a product-oriented tree
PBS, the ITER project is now developing a new function-oriented
approach for defining and organizing all the functions required to
perform its mission. The FBS is a structured breakdown that has
to provide a complete hierarchy of functions on multiple levels
from level 1 functions to be fulfilled by ITER down to main func-
tions, intermediate functions and then basic functions performed
by Structures/Systems/Components (SSCs), giving a good visibility
of needs and requirements [1].
Reliability (R) and Inherent Availability (AI ) of basic functions
can be calculated from data on the SSCs (failure rate and time to
repair), and this can be summarized up to intermediate and main
functions. In order to ensure sufficient time for plasma experi-
ments, and thus optimize the Life Cycle Cost (LCC), the ITER facility
must reach a sufficiently overall AI . The operation and disposal costs
drive the overall LCC and within the design phase of each individual
SSC it is essential to seek to lower the LCC. However the emphasis
in design phase is often on completing the work within schedule
and budget without considering the operation cost impacts of the
design options selected. Knowing that 75% of the design decisions
are generally irreversible, future operation costs can be increased
significantly by a development phase focused on construction cost.
The FBS emphasizes “what” the project must do, while the
PBS emphasizes “how”. It is an essential tool which would make
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Didier.vanhoutte@iter.org (D. van Houtte).
the ITER device can be filled, while optimizing dependability
and lowering the LCC. The FBS will ensure that the early design
phase is addressing all of the necessary basic functions by cross
referencing it to the PBS. Thanks to the FBS, a naming for ITER
components has been defined by introducing functional, type
and serial number references in order to have a traceability of
components during the ITER life cycle. The allocation of a common
functional reference to all SSCs which contribute to fulfil the same
operational function will make it possible to efficiently manage
ITER operations including maintenance activities.
This paper details how this functional approach has been
developed for the ITER project, how the SSCs numbering can be
completed and what Inherent Availability can be expected for ITER.
2. Functional breakdown approach
2.1. Main functions (FBS level 1)
The overall mission considered for developing the ITER FBS is
“To operate ITER” which includes the integrated commissioning,
the machine operation and the maintenance. The starting point of
the functional breakdown approach is the definition of the main
functions. The tree structure (see Fig. 1) makes it possible to dis-
tinguish the main functions associated to subsets of their mission
and to highlight important required functions as those for ensuring
Safety and Investment Protection (IP).
To be complete a FBS needs to associate operational activities
with functional packages. Plant systems are not stand-alone and
they are not used to their full capacity on a continuous basis. Dif-
ferent sub-systems will be used to fulfil different requirements
in different phases of operations to ensure different functions. On

0920-3796/$ – see front matter © 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2012.01.033
 D. van Houtte et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 87 (2012) 652–656 653

branch as this is shown in Fig. 1. The functional packages allow pro-

viding a physical system packaging scheme of technical SSCs which
may be grouped by similar type of equipment, common support or
systems as independent as possible with a minimum of interactive
effects on other packages. A single item in a PBS may address mul-
tiple items in a FBS and multiple items in a PBS may be needed to
address a single item in FBS.

2.2. Intermediate functions

Fig. 1. Tree functional structure.
this basis, the ITER FBS can be defined with eight main functions:
to ensure safety, to protect investment, to provide infrastructure
& support, to provide structures, to provide utilities, to per-
form plasma pulse, to perform the scientific programme and to
maintain.
These main operational functions are not homogeneous. To
ensure safety and to protect investment correspond to functional
requirements; to provide infrastructure & support, to provide
structures and to provide utilities are more related to functional
packages; to perform plasma pulse and to maintain are opera-
tional functions (see Fig. 2). This functional approach is focused on
identifying and grouping important functions to highlight them.
In addition to the specific safety functions, other safety functions
which appear in other functional branches are doubled in the Safety
From the level 1 to the lowest levels, the FBS details opera-
tions, activities and functions that must be performed. It is to be
noted that, except for the level 1 function “to maintain” each other
level 1 function needs to integrate the previous ones (see Fig. 2) to
be fulfilled. For example, the plasma pulse will be able to be per-
formed only if utilities, structures, infrastructure & support have
been provided and investment protection and safety are ensured.
The functions in level 1 can be broken down in main functions as
indicated in the following sub-paragraphs.
2.2.1. To ensure safety
This function “to ensure safety” aims to protect the operators,
public, and environment, and regroups 4 main level 2 safety func-
tions. Part of these levels 2 corresponds to a duplication of safety
functions listed in other main functions from other level 1 func-
tions.
2.2.2. To protect investment
The function “to protect investment” aims to protect the equip-
ment, and regroups 3 “level 2” functions.

TO OPERATE ITER

TO TO PROVIDE TO PERFORM
TO PROTECT TO PROVIDE TO PROVIDE TO PERFORM
ENSURE INFRASTRUCTURE SCIENTIFIC TO MAINTAIN
INVESTMENT STRUCTURES UTILITIES PLASMA PULSE
SAFETY & SUPPORT PROGRAMME

To confine To measure To house the To provide the To command & To prepare and To form & To control To dry, drain
radioactivity Parameters facility vacuum control plant syst run the plasma inject pellets vacuum quality & & bake the
for IP boundary for the pulse sequence impurities
To shelter the To process, To control divertor at
To limit plasma
plant syst in handle & store To energize TF instabilities To check 350°C by gas
exposure To manage
buildings To provide data coils to generat. earthing and
interlocks To heat the To prepare
To protect adequate To supply & dist. magnetic field ensure proper
for IP plasma & CD in-vessel
the syst. for To provide environt for the grounding
S-S elect. power To inject gases
confinement physical plasma To inject maintenance
To check, lock or
To stop the accesses and lift To supply & To assist specific gas To detect
and limiting unlock SCCs
power systems To provide distrib pulsed
exposure plasma start-up To measure necessary by leaks
sources in mechanical elect. power with EC parameters patrolling To maintain
To support appropriate To ensure fastening of the
To supply and for advanced I-V componts
safety suitable BM To induce To bake at 240°C
manner dist. liquid & control
functions environment plasma current I-V components To ensure
To provide cryo. gases To measure
conditions To provide cask transf.
vacuum To manage the H parameters To calibrate gas
To provide boundary for plasma equilib. injection To maintain
isotopes for Perf. &
means for the magnets To provide Physics in-Cryostat
To supply cooling To calibrate
information & corrective components
To provide an water to SSCs To exhaust diagnostics
communication magnetic field To maintain
effective thermal To reject heat heat To condition
shield to the To measure In Port Cell
To manage loads Heating systems
cryogenic SSCs para for basic To extract Components
conventional To produce and To condition the
control particles To maintain
safety & non- To provide an distrib chilled first wall
nuclear site water To supervise out-Cryostat
effective Blanket To demonst.
alarms machine To house & plant syst.
To produce, the feasibility
param. provide services
To provide an transport & dist. of Tritium To maintain
effective To process breeding for maintaining
cryogens to the buildings
Divertor data in real time hot Components
SSCs To provide
To provide To control the To manage services &
pumping to SSCs plasma in RT radwaste supp. for RH

Fig. 2. Levels 1 and 2 of the overall mission “To operate ITER”.

654 D. van Houtte et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 87 (2012) 652–656

Table 1 Table 2
Third level breakdown of “To provide utilities”. Part of the Level 4 functions of the level function “To perform the scientific
programme”.
To provide utilities
To command and control the plant systems To perform the scientific programme
To process, handle and store data To form and inject pellets in the plasma
To supply and distribute steady-state electrical power To provide pellets for plasma fuelling
To provide Class I power supply To control gas flow to injector
To provide Class II power supply To form H, D or T fuel ice
To provide Class III power supply To form impurity ice for IC coupling, radiative cooling & TP
To provide Class IV power supply To inject pellets
To supply and distribute pulsed electrical power To provide ELM pacing
To convert electric power To provide minority species for IC plasma coupling
To control reactive power & harmonic filtering To provide radiative cooling at the plasma edge
To distribute AC pulsed power To provide impurity transport physics studies
To supply and distribute liquids & gases To satisfy operational considerations
To supply demineralized water To minimize propellant entering VV
To supply potable water To reuse recovered propellant
To supply hot water To reuse scrap ice after pellet punched out
To supply GHe To purge lines of tritium
To supply N2
To supply compressed air
To manage the H-isotopes
To receive and treat mix gases and do not necessarily need all the previous main functions to be
To store and retrieve gases
filled.
To supply gases
To satisfy operational considerations
To supply cooling water to SSCs
To reject heat loads 2.3. Basic functions
To produce and distribute chilled water
To prod. & dist. CHW for water-cooled chillers The ITER FBS has been developed in 5 levels which is at the
To prod. & dist. CHW for safety related air-cooled chillers
same time sufficiently detailed and easily manageable. Within such
To produce, transport & distribute cryogens to SSCs
To produce cooling power
a breakdown, the basic functions are the elementary functions of
To transport fluids to/from cryogenic clients the structure at which the SSCs are related. They can correspond
To distribute cryogens either to level 2 main functions when no intermediate function has
To provide pumping to SSCs been identified or to levels 3, 4 or 5 otherwise. The basic function
To pump the torus and NB system
level is the level where the PBS is connected to the FBS insofar the
To pump the cryostat
components which contribute to fulfil a basic function, are related
to only one specific PBS.
2.2.3. To provide infrastructure & support An example of a fourth level breakdown is given in Table 2 for
The function “to provide infrastructure & support” deals with part of the main function “To perform the scientific programme”.
functions related to both nuclear and non-nuclear buildings, The level 4 function “To form H, D or T fuel ice” corresponds, in that
generic support activities and regroups 6 “level 2” functions. case, to a basic function which one can associate with the compo-
nents from the ITER PBS-18 “Fuelling & Wall Conditioning” which
contribute to it. A failure rate, a duty cycle and a time to repair can
2.2.4. To provide structures be associated to each of these components what makes it possi-
The function “to provide structures” focuses on main passive ble, thanks to a bottom-up propagation, to calculate the reliability
structures of the tokamak (cryostat, thermal shields, vacuum ves- and availability of the level 3 function “To provide pellet for plasma
sel, Blanket and Divertor) and regroups 7 “level 2” functions. fuelling”, then by associating the results obtained in the same way
for the 5 other level 3 functions (Table 2), to obtain the reliability
2.2.5. To provide utilities and availability of the level 2 function “To form and inject pellet
The function “to provide utilities” regroups 11 “level 2” functions in the plasma”. The PBS-18 has another basic function “To perform
and 24 “level 3” functions of which four, “to provide Class I power glow discharges cleaning” which is a level 3 function of the level
supply”, “to provide Class II power supply”, “to supply compressed 1 function “To Maintain”. This shows that 2 parts of a same PBS
air” and “to produce & distribute chilled water for safety related can fulfil 2 different operational functions associated to 2 different
air-cooled chillers”, are safety related (see Table 1). main functions in a FBS.
The availabilities obtained for all the level 2 functions by
2.2.6. To perform plasma pulse using the propagation process previously described, can be then
The function “to perform plasma pulse” gathers the main func- compared to the project availability requirements. Such type of
tions necessary for carrying out a “basic” plasma pulse and regroups propagation process can be also used in a top-down way by start-
11 “level 2” functions. ing the process from the level 1 and main function with their
project availability requirements down to the basic functions then
to associated SSCs to deduce what failure rate and time to repair
2.2.7. To perform scientific programme
they need to demonstrate to meet the project requirements (see
The function “to perform scientific programme” regroups 8
Fig. 3).
“level 2” functions which are required for physics experiments. One
of the “level 2” functions “to form and inject pellets in the plasma”
is shown in Table 2 down to the level 4. 3. Inherent availability

2.2.8. To maintain The Inherent Availability (AI ) is the percentage of time during
The function “to maintain” regroups 20 “level 2” functions which which the machine would be available if no delay due to scheduled
do not need to be operational at the same time, can be independent maintenance or supply (i.e., not design-related) was encountered.
 D. van Houtte et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 87 (2012) 652–656
Fig. 3. AI requirements per level 1 function (bars) & cumulated (dashed lines) of the mission “To Operate ITER” in H & D–T phases.
It is an indicator of the reliability and maintainability of the system
design and is defined in the following Eq. (1):
MTBF MOT
AI = = (1)
MTBF + MTTR MOT + MDTNS
where MTBF is the Mean Time Between Failures, MOT is Mean Oper-
ation Time, MDTNS is the Mean Not-Scheduled Down-Time and
MTTR is the Mean Time To Repair. The failures of SSCs, highlighted
at the level of the basic functions, lead in a bottom-up process to
failures of the main functions they are related to, being able to
impact the whole operation of the system then of the overall ITER
facility. The Inherent Availability of a function at a specific level
can be estimated using a Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) approach
while using MTBF, MTTR and duty cycle values of the components
contributing to the basic functions. Then, by propagating the data
to the higher levels, Availability values can be obtained for all the
function levels [2]. In order to ensure sufficient time for plasma
experiments the ITER device must meet a sufficiently high over-
all Inherent Availability target. Inherent Availability targets have
been allocated by the project (see requirements in Fig. 3) to the
level 1 functions to be fulfilled to allow the overall device reaching
objectives of 60% for cumulated AI for the main function “to per-
form the plasma pulse” in H phase and 44% in D–T phase. These
allocations can be propagated down to the main functions (level
2) which are more operational functions. That allows allocating an
availability requirement to a function at the level adapted to the
needs (I&C control, Procurement package, etc.). This requirement
Fig. 4. Reliability Block Diagrams for part of the function “To provide Utilities” down to/from components.
655
propagating process from the allocations to main functions
required by the project is made (see Fig. 4). The deduced AI require-
ments for the main functions of “to provide utilities” are given in
Fig. 5. The Inherent Availabilities required for the level 2 functions
“to supply and distribute pulsed electrical power”, “to manage H
isotope” (tritium in DT Phase) and “to produce, transport and dis-
tribute cryogens to SSCs” are clearly the lowest ones thus which
strongly impact the availability of the overall level 1 function “to
provide utilities”.
4. SSCs functional reference and components numbering
Each main function of the FBS level 2 will have a unique 2-letter
name (MM) which will be propagated down to the intermediate
functions. Intermediate functions that are just above the basic func-
tions will have 2 additional letters in their names (MMII). Four digits
will be added to the 4 letters to name the basic functions (MMII-
BBBB). In addition to this functional reference, the SSCs associated
to the basic functions will be identified via a diagram number,
PP, a geographical reference (room, sector, level, etc.), PP, a type
number (pump, valve, heat exchanger, etc.), TTT, and a serial num-
ber, NNNN. All the components related to operational functions
will be thus tracked thanks to his only name: MMII-BBBB-PPPP-
TTT-NNNN. This ITER policy for a naming based on a functional
reference will allow following the operational performance of a
function in terms of Inherent Availability during the overall ITER life
cycle.
656 D. van Houtte et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 87 (2012) 652–656
Fig. 5. Inherent Availability requirements per intermediate functions (bars) and cumulated (dashed line) of the level 2 main functions related to the level 1 function “To
provide Utilities” in H and D–T phase.
The optimization of the availability will be made via a close
control of the availability of operational functions during the ITER
life cycle, via their Mean Operation Time and Mean Not-Scheduled
Down-Time for corrective maintenance related to failures. The
planning of the preventive maintenance activities of the SSCs
ensuring the functions will be permanently confirmed and/or
updated by using these inputs in a Computerized Maintenance
Management System (CMMS).
5. Conclusion
With the aim to manage ITER in its Operation phase, a Functional
Breakdown Structure is being developed. A complete hierarchy
of functions from 8 “level 1” functions, 72 main functions (level
2) down to more than 530 basic operational functions staging
between the levels 2 and 5 has been obtained. Within the FBS,
Safety and Investment Protection functions have been highlighted.
The project has allocated a specific availability requirement to each
main function which can be propagated down to basic functions
and associated SSCs. A unique name will be allocated to each SSC
fulfilling a basic function what will makes it possible to follow them
in terms of RAMI parameters through a Computerized Maintenance
Management System, for preparing the necessary maintenance and
upgrade activities of the SSCs.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank their colleagues from ITER Organi-
zation for their contribution for establishing functional analyses of
the ITER systems.
“The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily
reflect those of the ITER Organization.”
References
[1] D. van Houtte, et al., ITER operational availability & fluence objectives, Fusion
Engineering and Design 51–52 (2011) 579–585.
[2] D. van Houtte, et al., RAMI approach for ITER, Fusion Engineering and Design 85
(2010) 1220–1224.