The Port of Marseille Fos handles the biggest ITER reactor component
On Monday 8 June 2019, a major component (weighing 400 metric tons and with a diameter of 10.5 m) of the ITER fusion reactor was handled at the Port of Marseille Fos for delivery to the ITER construction site at Saint-Paul-lez-Durance/Cadarache (Bouches-du-Rhône), the company said in its release.
The contribution of the seven ITER members (China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States) is mainly in kind. Each member has established a "Domestic Agency" responsible for managing the fabrications assigned to it. Once finalized, the parts are transported by DAHER, ITER's Global Logistics Provider, via the Port of Marseille Fos to the ITER construction site at Saint-Paul-lezDurance/Cadarache (Bouches-du-Rhône).
After crossing the Étang de Berre, the parts follow the "ITER Itinerary", which was specially developed by France to be able to support the heaviest (up to 500 metric tons, 800 including the weight of the motorized trailer) and the bulkiest (up to 11 m wide and 10 m high) parts. Three to four nights are required to transport the biggest loads ("Highly Exceptional Loads" or HELs) from Berre to the ITER site, some 100 km away.
Since December 2014, approximately 40 convoys have successively followed the itinerary delivering a total of 86 HEL parts, including, in April, two 350 metric ton vertical magnets from Italy and Japan respectively. Almost 120 HELs are expected at ITER over the next five years.
The part that arrived yesterday at the Port of Marseille Fos is the heaviest (400 metric tons, more than 500 with its transport cradle) of all those delivered to ITER to date, and is the widest of all those that will be incorporated into the installation. It is one of the six annular magnets (PF6) that surround the ITER tokamak and help create the magnetic cage that encloses the plasma - at very high-temperature (150 million degrees C) - in which hydrogen fusion reactions take place.
The 10.5-metre diameter magnet has been supplied by Europe, which decided to have it manufactured in China by the Institute of Plasma Physics/Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). The part was completed in March and sailed from Shanghai at the end of April. In order to accommodate these exceptional loads, the Port of Marseille Fos had to modify its infrastructure and build a specially designed boarding ramp. Located in the Fos harbours, it means that loaded vehicles can board directly without touching their contents.
About the Port of Marseille Fos
As France's leading port and a major player in international trade, the Port of Marseille Fos handles close to 10,000 ships and 79 million metric tons of goods, serves 860 customers and is developing 10,400 hectares of land through an environmental excellence approach. Covering an area as large as the city of Paris, the Port of Marseille Fos has the space and infrastructure to accommodate maritime, logistics and industrial activities. It is capable of handling a wide range of activities from importing to exporting goods of all types (oil and oil products, containers, ores, food products, etc.). The Port has major logistics platforms hosting international players (ADEO, Geodis/Mattel, etc.) which supply the French and European markets. Industrial activities such as refining, the iron and steel industry, the chemical industry and ship repair with notably the dry dock “Form 10", the third largest in the world, are also part of the Port's ecosystem. The Port of Marseille Fos also meets the international standards required for passenger, cruise and ferry activities.
About ITER
Designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy, ITER is the largest experimental fusion facility ever built. Fusion is the energy source of the Sun and stars. In the tremendous heat and gravity at the core of these stellar bodies, hydrogen nuclei collide, fuse into heavier helium atoms and release tremendous amounts of energy in the process. Fusion research aims to master this safe, reliable, environmentally friendly and virtually inexhaustible source of energy. Furthermore, ITER is an unparalleled undertaking in international scientific cooperation.