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Good things don’t always come in small packages, as evidenced by the cutting-edge cancer treatment equipment that recently moved from Kobe, Japan, through Georgia Ports Authority’s Ocean Terminal in Savannah.
Proton therapy is an advanced, precise form of radiation cancer treatment. The technology is able to target cancer tissue with less damage to surrounding healthy tissue than traditional radiation treatments. However, the units are massive and heavy.
Last week, crews at Ocean Terminal unloaded more than 70 crates from a ship and loaded them onto trucks bound for ProNova in Knoxville, Tenn., the first proton equipment manufacturing facility in the U.S.
“This is another example of Ocean Terminal’s ability to handle outsized and super-heavy cargo,” said GPA Executive Director Curtis Foltz. “Our dedicated teams are well-versed in the special handling requirements for freight in this category.”
A fully assembled proton therapy cyclotron weighs 220 tons, or roughly the equivalent of two space shuttles.
“With extremely massive cargo such as ours, it was imperative that we find the shortest transit and most cost-effective land route possible,” said Bill Hansen, vice president of business and strategic development for Provision Health Alliance, a partner of ProNova in providing the new therapy.
“Georgia Ports’ Ocean Terminal was the best choice logistically and geographically to move our cargo,” he said.
ProNova, a leader in proton therapy research, development and design, has partnered with some of the leading health care and proton therapy providers and developers worldwide to further this technology, making it more accessible and affordable to cancer patients and their doctors.
“Our ability to move critically important and enormous cargo by offering faster and more economical connections to the population centers of the Southeast, helps the GPA to win and retain the new business that has such an important impact on the nation’s economy,” said Cliff Pyron, GPA chief commercial officer.
Once fully assembled, this equipment will create the ProNova SC360 Proton Therapy System’s accelerator, also known as a cyclotron. Protons are extracted from the hydrogen atom in a single drop of water, which contains enough protons to treat 10,000 cancer patients. These protons are accelerated inside the cyclotron to two-thirds the speed of light, then used to penetrate the human body and destroy the cancer cells.
Proton therapy centers cost up to $200 million to build. There are currently 14 centers in operation in the U.S. and another 25 under construction, including Georgia’s first center at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta.
Comfort update
Remember the MOL Comfort, the container ship that split in two when its hull cracked during a major storm in the Gulf of Aden last summer? Both sections of the ship eventually sank, although the 26 crew members escaped by lifeboat and were rescued.
Now, some 14 months later, shippers, insurers and others are watching developments in a Japanese court and awaiting a Japanese government inquiry that is expected to present its preliminary findings on the sinking within the next few weeks.
As the Comfort is the largest container ship ever to be declared a total loss, there has yet to be a definite cost associated with the accident. However, the Journal of Commerce reports estimates for cargo losses alone range from $200 million to a half-billion dollars.
Many of the Comfort’s nearly 4,400 containers were filled with electronics or other consumer goods when the vessel went down on the Singapore-to-Jeddah leg of its Asia-to-Europe route.
Earlier this year, the Tokyo District Court allowed cargo interests and other plaintiffs to join ship owner MOL in its lawsuit seeking damages from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which built the vessel.
Mitsubishi has insisted there was no problem with the ship’s design or construction.
As investigators struggle to ascertain how a five-year-old vessel could break in two, speculation centers around overweight boxes, misdeclared cargo and stowage errors, the JOC said.
But, as the ship and its cargo rest in pieces on the gulf floor, definitive answers may never come.
Senior business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for the Savannah Morning News. She can be reached at 912-652-0324 or at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com.
SHIPPING SCHEDULE
These are the ships expected to call on Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean Terminals in the next week. Sailing schedules are provided by Georgia Ports Authority and are subject to change.
Terminal Vessel ETA
GCT ZIM VIRGINIA Today
GCT ZIM MONACO Today
GCT MAERSK MONTANA Today
GCT MSC FIRENZE Today
GCT PRAIA Today
GCT XIN SU ZHOU Today
OT GRANDE MAROCCO Today
GCT SAIGON EXPRESS Saturday
GCT TOKYO EXPRESS Saturday
GCT PHILADELPHIA EXPRESS Saturday
GCT E.R. DENVER Sunday
GCT EVER LEGEND Sunday
GCT CMA CGM FIGARO Monday
GCT HANJIN SAN DIEGO Monday
GCT MAERSK CHICAGO Monday
GCT MOL PARAMOUNT Monday
GCT FRISIA ROTTERDAM Monday
OT MORNING CHARLOTTE Monday
OT TRAVELLER Monday
GCT HYUNDAI FORWARD Tuesday
GCT MOL ENDURANCE Tuesday
GCT NYK DEMETER Tuesday
GCT MSC LUISA Tuesday
GCT BUXCOAST Tuesday
GCT APL CYPRINE Tuesday
GCT YM MATURITY Tuesday
GCT STI RUBY Tuesday
GCT RHL FIDUCIA Wednesday
GCT HEATHER Wednesday
GCT IBRAHIM DEDE Wednesday
GCT YM EMINENCE Wednesday
GCT DS NATIONAL Wednesday
OT GLOBAL FRONTIER Wednesday
OT BAHRI TABUK Wednesday
OT TUGELA Wednesday
GCT MOL PARADISE Thursday
GCT MSC ANGELA Thursday
GCT ZIM SAN FRANCISCO Thursday
GCT ISLANDIA Thursday
GCT MSC CANDICE Thursday
GCT MAERSK WILMINGTON Thursday
GCT NORTHERN GENERAL Thursday
GCT NYK ARCADIA Thursday
GCT HANJIN RIO DE JANEIRO Thursday