Bringing it all home
22 Dec 2014
The ITER Itinerary is tested a second time in 2014, including the maritime leg of the journey to the ITER site. In the picture, the 33-metre-long customized trailer and its mock load of concrete blocks (800 tonnes) is transported by barge along the Canal de Caronte, which connects the Mediterranean and the inland sea Etang de Berre.
On 1 April the test convoy begins its journey in the Mediterranean town of Fos-sur-Mer. If all goes according to plan it will reach the ITER site in four nights, after travelling along the 104-kilometres of the Itinerary with a full escort of police officers, technical personnel and support vehicles.
The second ITER Itinerary test convoy reaches its destination, the ITER platform, in the small hours of 8 April just in time for an early breakfast. This important milestone concludes the technical and logistical verification of the ITER Itinerary and opens the way to the transport of ITER components.
The first of four transformers for ITER's steady state electrical network arrives safely in Fos-sur-Mer on 19 December, after nearly 30 days at sea aboard the CMA CGM IVANHOE. The US-procured component had left Ulsan, Korea on 16 November. The final leg of its journey—transport to the ITER site along the ITER Itinerary—will begin on 12 January 2015.