The ITER Electron Cyclotron Heating and Current Drive Upper Launcher, developed by the ECHUL-CA Consortium of Euratom Associations (CRPP, CNR, ITER-NL, IPF, IPP, KIT and Politecnico di Milano), is presently in its final design phase.

The study presented here deals with design options and Remote Handling issues related to the waveguide assembly, an ensemble of mm-wave transmission line components mounted on a vacuum flange. This flange is part of the primary vacuum boundary of the ITER vessel. This paper describes the preliminary assessment of the RH compatibility of the sub-assembly, and a conceptual description of the maintenance actions to be performed on it.

A comparison between two possible configurations for the tapers is reported: a waveguide integrated design, in which tapers are integral part of the in-plug waveguide, and an auxiliary shield integrated design, in which the tapers are integrated into the Auxiliary Shield.

An important aspect in the design is to ensure the Remote Handling compatibility. Due to lack of space and limited dexterity of the slave manipulator, the general approach in defining the maintenance strategy is to avoid breaking the interfaces of the different components of the assembly, and to extract it from the Upper Port Plug as a single entity. An assessment on possible replacement procedure and the required tools are presented here.