Big yellow crane, right on time

Right on time! On Wednesday 12 February, nine months after construction began on ITER's on-site Cryostat Workshop, the first elements of the workshop's gantry crane were delivered to the ITER site.

 

Manufactured in Italy by Danieli Centro Cranes, the gantry crane will be assembled on site from six 12-metre-long beams bolted together to make a twin beam assembly that carries a motor trolley lifting device.

 

Once installed, it will stand 18 metres high and be able to travel by rail the entire length of the huge workshop (~100 metres).

 

With a lifting capacity of 200 tonnes (plus an auxiliary 50-tonne hook) the crane will be used to lift and handle the 54 cryostat segments that will arrive from India. After welding, these segments will form the four cryostat sections that will enclose the ITER Tokamak.

 

The temporary Cryostat Workshop is the only building on the ITER platform that is not under European construction responsibility. The large steel-framed building stands on a small football-field-sized parcel (50 x 120 m) that has been made available to the Indian Domestic Agency.

 

As part of the cryostat manufacturing contract awarded in 2012 by ITER India to Larsen & Toubro, the Indian manufacturer is also responsible for on-site assembly. Larsen & Toubro awarded a contract to SPIE Batignolles for the construction of the Cryostat Workshop.