Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Deputy Director-General | Yutaka Kamada, Science & Technology

    In his late childhood and early teens, Yutaka Kamada developed two passions: one for growing cactus, the other for fusion energy. Half a century later, his [...]

    Read more

  • Images of the week | Yet another magnet feeder from China

    This in-cryostat feeder will supply electrical power and cryogenic fluids to some of the top correction coils of the ITER machine. ITER will rely on 31 mag [...]

    Read more

  • Gyrotrons | India successfully demonstrates ITER power and pulse requirements

    As a part of its in-kind commitments to the project, ITER India will deliver two radio-frequency-based power sources (or 'gyrotrons") with state-of-the-art [...]

    Read more

  • Neutral beam power supply | Lightning-power voltage

    In January 2021, preparatory works began for the construction of two large buildings designed to accommodate a unique set of electrical equipment. A little more [...]

    Read more

  • MITICA | Cryopump passes site acceptance tests

    Cryopumps, which play an essential role in ITER, are not what one has in mind when picturing a pump. A conventional pump creates negative pressure to suck in fl [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Delivery

2,000 km through canals, locks and tunnels

When the thruway is closed, one takes the back roads. And when it's low-water season on the Rhine-Rhône canal, a barge leaving Switzerland for the Mediterranean has no other choice than to head north, then west, until eventually reaching the Rhône river valley through a network of small-gauge canals dotted with locks and tunnels.

Manufactured under an ITER India contract by Linde Kryotechnik AG near Zürich, Switzerland, the ''cryogenic termination cold box'' reached the Rhône river valley through a network of small-gauge canals dotted with locks and tunnels. (Click to view larger version...)
Manufactured under an ITER India contract by Linde Kryotechnik AG near Zürich, Switzerland, the ''cryogenic termination cold box'' reached the Rhône river valley through a network of small-gauge canals dotted with locks and tunnels.
For the last of the cold boxes needed for the ITER cryoplant, the journey must have seemed like a leisure cruise through magnificent winter scenery. For the transport organizers—ITER's global logistics provider DAHER and its contractor Compagnie Fluviale de Transport—it was a highly delicate operation.

The 63.5-tonne load travelled aboard a specialized heavy-duty barge, the Porthos, whose dimensions barely allowed it to pass through some of the locks.

The waterline of the barge had to be lowered enough to allow passage through the low-ceilinged tunnels, while keeping the ship's hull at a safe distance from the bottom of the canal. (Click to view larger version...)
The waterline of the barge had to be lowered enough to allow passage through the low-ceilinged tunnels, while keeping the ship's hull at a safe distance from the bottom of the canal.
To accommodate the height of the cold box (five metres), the waterline of the barge had to be lowered sufficiently to allow passage through the low-ceilinged tunnels while keeping the ship's hull at a safe distance from the bottom of the canal. This was achieved by adding a precisely calculated amount of ballast to the component's weight.

Despite these challenges, barge transportation has its advantages. "It offers a very smooth ride, with very few accelerations and vibrations," explains DAHER's operation manager Laurence Prudhomme. "And it's also cheaper than road transportation." Components on a barge travel slowly, but in safety and comfort.

For the last of the cold boxes needed for the ITER cryoplant, the journey must have seemed like a leisure cruise through magnificent winter scenery. For the transport organizers—ITER's global logistics provider DAHER and its contractor Compagnie Fluviale de Transport—it was a highly delicate operation. (Click to view larger version...)
For the last of the cold boxes needed for the ITER cryoplant, the journey must have seemed like a leisure cruise through magnificent winter scenery. For the transport organizers—ITER's global logistics provider DAHER and its contractor Compagnie Fluviale de Transport—it was a highly delicate operation.
From Switzerland, where the cold box was manufactured under an ITER India contract, to the ITER site, where it is expected on 20 February, the journey will have lasted more than three weeks. In all, a voyage of almost 2,000 kilometres through eight different canals, four tunnels and 250 locks.

Click here to view a short video of the barge as icebreaker.

return to the latest published articles