India delivers first lot of piping
7 Sep 2015
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Dilshad Sulaiman, ITER India
A first lot of cooling water pipes for ITER's chilled water and heat rejection systems arrived at ITER on 2 September, approximately one month after shipment from India.
In early August, the Indian Domestic Agency had overseen the loading of 24 pipes into two containers at the Inland Container Depot in Khodiyar, India. The containers were then taken by rail to Mundra Port and charged on an ocean-going vessel. The shipment reached port in France and was delivered by truck to the ITER site.
The 11-metre-long cooling pipes, ranging in diameter from 15 to 50 cm, make up the first lot of cooling water piping under Indian scope. In all, some 100 containers of piping are expected from India for ITER's cooling water systems.
On the occasion of the first shipment, a ceremony was organized at the container depot with nearly 100 attendees from ITER India, the ITER Organization, contractor Larsen & Toubro, logistic partner Deugro India, and representatives from government and industry. ITER India project manager for cooling water systems, AG Ajith Kumar, welcomed all the delegates; speeches were also made by former ITER Deputy Director-General Dhiraj Bora, director of India's Institute for Plasma Research; Steve Ployhar, technical responsible officer from the ITER Organization; R. Govindrajan, project manager from Larsen & Toubro; and Shishir Deshpande, head of Indian Domestic Agency.
ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot conveyed his best wishes to the team live through teleconference.