Diameter bounds in 3d Type I Ricci flows

We prove that a three dimensional compact Ricci flow that encounters a Type I singularity has uniformly bounded diameter up to the singular time, thus giving an affirmative answer - for Type I singularities - to a conjecture of Perelman. To achieve this, we introduce a concept of a neck-region for a Ricci flow, analogous to the neck-regions introduced by Jiang-Naber and Cheeger-Jiang-Naber, in the study of Ricci limit spaces. We then prove that the associated packing measure is, in a certain sense, Ahlfors regular, a result that holds in any dimension.