Loading of 736-ton reactor

The loading of a super heavyweight
736-ton reactor at
the Port of Yokohama earlier
this year presented its fair share of
challenges for the master of the
Beluga Intonation, Johan Buysse,
and his crew.
At around 10 o’clock in the
morning a small barge with the 35
metre-long reactor moored alongside
the multipurpose heavy-lift project
carrier. Because of the extreme torsion
forces that affect the vessel during a
lift of such dimensions, strict safety
regulations had to be observed and
only the team members actively
involved in the operation remained
on board.
Tons of ballast water kept the vessel
in balance. Because of the weight of
the loaded cargo, bunker was pumped
as well to guarantee stability. “The
most critical point during the whole
process is when the cargo passes the
ship’s rail. Then the centre of gravity
moves from outside to inside,” Roberto
Frigeni, head of Beluga transport
engineering told FTW. “Due to the
limited space on deck we could not
take advantage of much room to swing
the reactor and had to place it precisely
in the designated position.” Steel mats
were spread to reduce the enormous
point load impacting on the hatchcovers
of the vessel through the cargo.
Pre-planning and accuracy clearly
paid off with the super heavy-lift
loaded without blemish. The Beluga
Intonation headed for Singapore, her
first and only stop en route to the
destination port of India.
In the port of Masan, South Korea
the vessel had already loaded three
plant components for the chemical
industry, a 71-metre refining column,
a 58-metre recovery column and a
30metre-long saturator. All three items
weighed between 229 and 350 tons.
For Beluga’s project division, it was
all in a day’s work.