The ITER Organization has signed a five-year contract for the provision of global transport, logistic and insurance services with the integrated equipment and services supplier DAHER. There is also the possibility for extension beyond five years.
The contact will facilitate the complex logistics related to the transport of ITER components from suppliers all over the globe to Cadarache, France where the project is currently under construction.
A significant number of heavy-lift and exceptional-size loads will travel from suppliers’ factories in China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States to the ITER site during the construction phase of the project. Every aspect related to the transport of ITER loads—including customs management at departure and arrival, logistics, insurance, intermediate storage before delivery, handling, and final unloading at the ITER site—will be handled by DAHER.
Exceptionally heavy or large loads will travel from the harbour of Port de la Pointe, at Berre l’Etang near Marseille, to the project site along the dedicated ITER Itinerary—104 kilometres of modified road prepared by France for the ITER project. End 2012 and mid-2013, operational tests will be organized along the ITER Itinerary.
The first large components are expected on the ITER site in 2014. Vast drain tanks for the Tokamak basement will arrive first—followed by elements of the cryostat, the stainless steel structure that will completely surround the vacuum vessel and superconducting magnets.
Between 2015 and 2017 the largest components of the ITER machine will be shipped: the nine sectors of the vacuum vessel from Europe and Korea and the eighteen toroidal field coils from Europe and Japan. The dimensions of the largest convoys are impressive: the heaviest will weigh approximately 900 tons (including the transport vehicle); the tallest will be 10.6 metres high; the longest 61 metres; and the widest 9 metres.
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