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Latest ITER Newsline
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Challenges | Managing risk in a first-of-a-kind project
The classic approach to project management is to group risks into three separate categories. The first consists of known risks, the second of unknown risks, and [...]
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Steve Cowley | Projecting into the coming decades
Steven Cowley, who now heads the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), gave a seminar last week at CEA-Cadarache and he had some good news regarding the s [...]
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Outreach | What vacuum does to marshmallows
Every year in France, science is "à la fête" for two consecutive weekends in October. Free events and demonstrations—tailored particularly to school-a [...]
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Physics | 11th ITER International School announced
The 11th ITER International School will be held from 20 to 24 July 2020, hosted by Aix-Marseille University in Aix-en-Provence, France. The subject of this year [...]
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Image of the week | An anniversary in blue, white and red
ITER neighbour and close partner in fusion research, the CEA-Cadarache nuclear research centre, was established in October 1959. This week, it celebrated the 60 [...]
ITER NEWSLINE -
Home at last
Passing through Saint Paul-lez-Durance (pop. 987), the last village before arriving at ITER.
There's a strange beauty to the transport of ITER components. It comes from the revolving lights piercing the night, from the slow progress of the trailer and its escort of a dozen vehicles, from the deserted roads and sleeping villages...
For three nights, from 4 to 7 May, the second Highly Exceptional Load (HEL) to be delivered to ITER made its way along the ITER Itinerary. A few minutes past 3:00 a.m., on Thursday 7 May, two large trailers—each loaded with a 79-ton cylindrical tank—passed the gate of the ITER site.
Five weeks after the US-procured components had embarked for their transatlantic voyage and 11 days after they were unloaded at Marseille's industrial harbour in Fos-sur-Mer, the tanks had reached their home at last.
The final leg of the voyage, from the village Meyrargues to the ITER site, was uneventful—which is the best possible result for such a delicate logistics operation. The schedule was respected and even improved by half an hour. By mid-afternoon both tanks had been unloaded and carefully stored into the large hangar at the entrance to ITER Headquarters.
Out in the open they resembled giant beer kegs. In the hangar, they looked like the segments of a star-bound rocket.
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