Re: [ccp4bb]: Transporting xtals

[Martin Walsh <walsh@esrf.fr>]

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Its a while since I transported a dewar myself but alot of the problems with
carrying the dewar are convincing the
company that it is not hazardous goods. I have a number of documents  from
IATA which specifically refer to dry
shippers and state that they are not subject to the conditions required for
transporting hazardous materials (as long as you empty the N2(liq) from the
dewar). This should make things smoother for transporting via courier and by
hand. As Phil points out the x-ray machine can indeed see inside the dewar so
that should not be a problem. I will put the IATA documents up on the BM14
home page by the end of the week (www.bm14.ac.uk).
It would be useful if people could inform me of the procedures that have
worked for them and I can also add this to the web page.

On another topic....we are now accepting proposals for beamtime at BM14 for
the next synchrotron run which starts on the 25th January 2002. Anyone
interested in applying for beamtime should do so before the closing date which
is 5th December 2001 using our online submission procedure (www.bm14.ac.uk).
All EMBL member state countries are eligible to apply.

    Martin



Marko Hyvonen wrote:

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>
> We have not been out to synchrotrons after September 11th, but just before
> that I sorted out a procedure with Buzz/Stanstead that worked at least
> reasonable well at that time.
>
> We asked the Buzz cargo department to get a clearance for the dewar to
> take on the plane (As recommended by the pilot I had chat with in
> the cockpit during the  flight back the previous time - ever so exiting
> :-), and this certainly helped  with the ground staff - I even got a
> "BUZZ" vest and got to carry  the dewar literally into the plane cargo
> hold (again, exiting, but was not allowed to keep the vest :-).
>
> We  also faxed a  request for security clearance for airport from the
> security manager. We used the large X-ray machine at the side of the
> terminal (for bikes, skies, buggies) and with the letter  from the
> security some escorted us through the normal check-in after that. It has
> looked to me always like you could see right  through the dewar, but
> perhaps that is not the case always. We have Taylor-Wharton CP100 dewars.
>
> Whether this works in the current state of air travel security, I do not
> know, but there was certainly less hassle from the ground staff when they
> were informed of it in advance. And it is in their interest as well to
> spend less time at the terminal sorting these things out.
>
> Good luck, Marko
>
> PS. Just saw Jim's mailing. clearly a procedure such as above hasn't been
> all that helpful for them. But at least with Buzz there are people who do
> know about dewars and stuff. Just make sure you mention it when booking
> the tickets.
>
>  ____________________________________
>
>  Marko Hyvonen, PhD
>  Department of Biochemistry
>  University of Cambridge
>  http://www-cryst.bioc.cam.ac.uk/~marko
>  tel:  +44-(0)1223-766 031 / 766 027
>  _______________________________________

--
Martin Walsh
MRC Grenoble,
CRG BM14,
c/o ESRF,
BP 220,
F-38043 Grenoble Cedex,
France
Tel/Fax: +-33-4-76882380
URL: www.bm14.ac.uk