First "exceptional load" delivered to ITER

The transformer is part of the United States’ 75 percent contribution to the installation’s steady state electrical network. In the months to come, three other identical components will be delivered to ITER. 

Since September 2014, ITER has received a number of smaller components destined for the electrical network. But today’s delivery was the first to fall under the category of “Highly Exceptional Loads” (HEL), which requires travel by night on the specially adapted ITER Itinerary between the Mediterranean Sea and the ITER site. 

The component’s journey began on 16 November 2014 when it left the Hyundai Heavy Industry plant in Ulsan, Korea. After a one-month sea voyage, the transformer reached Marseille’s industrial harbor, Fos-sur-Mer, where it was placed in temporary storage. Loaded onto a trailer on 12 January 2015, the component travelled by barge across the inland sea Etang de Berre. 

The transformer was transported along the 104 kilometres of the ITER Itinerary in one night (13-14 January). Although it is one of the smallest loads expected along the Itinerary, the operation mobilized approximately 120 people. 

International transport was organized by Logistics Service Provider DAHER in close collaboration with the ITER Organization. The last leg of the journey, from Fos-sur-Mer to the ITER site, was organized by DAHER, Agence Iter France and the French authorities, and financed by the European Domestic Agency for ITER. 

A few hours after arrival, a small welcome ceremony was held at the ITER site. On this occasion the Director-General of the ITER Organization, Osamu Motojima, emphasized the symbolic importance of the delivery of the first Highly Exceptional Load for ITER, one small example of the “global—and efficient—collaboration” that is behind the ITER Project. 

The directors of several Domestic Agencies participated in the ceremony alongside ITER senior management, representatives of the ITER Electrical Engineering Division, and Bernard Bigot, the ITER Organization Director-General nominee. 

“Today’s operation will need to be replicated some 250 times before we can complete the assembly of the ITER Tokamak,” stated Director-General Motojima. “And some of the components will be much larger, heavier and more difficult to handle than the one that was delivered today. ITER success depends on all of you who designed, procured, manufactured and safely transported and delivered this component.”

BACKGROUND TO THE PRESS RELEASE 

ITER—designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power— will be the world's largest experimental fusion facility. Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars: when light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones, a large amount of energy is released. Fusion research is aimed at developing a safe, abundant and environmentally responsible energy source. 

ITER is also a first-of-a-kind global collaboration. Europe will contribute almost half of the costs of its construction, while the other six Members to this joint international venture (China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA), will contribute equally to the rest. The ITER Project is under construction in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, in the south of France. 

Photos of the event can be found in our on-line album. 

For more information on the ITER Project, visit: http://www.iter.org/

CONTACT

Michel Claessens 
michel.claessens@iter.org 
+33 6 14 16 41 75, @M_Claessens