Packing for a long journey
26 Oct 2015
The first segments of the ITER cryostat have started on a long journey that will take them from the Larsen & Toubro manufacturing plant in Hazira, on the northwest coast of India, to the ITER site in southern France.
The ITER cryostat will be assembled in an on-site facility from 54 segments shipped from India. The first segments should arrive on site before the end of the year.
On Monday 19 October, following a "flag-off" ceremony that celebrated the successful manufacturing of the first of 54 segments that will constitute the giant vacuum container, packing operations began for the 460-tonne consignment.
It is expected that the long and delicate packing operation will be completed by the end of this month. The segments will then be transported by truck to port and loaded onto a container ship that is scheduled to call at Fos-sur-Mer harbour—the closest to ITER—during the last days of November.
Six 19-ton shells will be delivered to the ITER site by way of "regular" exceptional transport—that is along regular roads. The much larger 60° base sections—six sections, 10 metres long, 8.10 metres wide, 50 tonnes each—will be required to travel along the dedicated ITER Itinerary in two separate convoys of three trailers.
Both convoys are expected before the end of the year at ITER—the first elements of the ITER machine to reach the site.