Plan for Testing High-Current Superconductors for Fusion Reactors with A 15T Test Facility

Abstract

Fusion power plants need larger scale and higher field superconducting magnets than the ITER magnets. Therefore, higher current superconductors with high strength against strong electromagnetic forces are needed. In order to examine the superconducting properties of such large conductors in real conditions, we are preparing a new test facility that is equipped with a solenoid coil of the highest field of 13 T with the bore of 0.7 m, a pair of temperature-variable current leads, and a vacuum chamber for conductor samples. The highest field can be increased to 15 T by installing an additional coil with the cold bore of 0.6 m. Since the inlet temperature of the samples can be varied from 4.4 K to 50 K, it is possible to examine properties of advanced conductors at actual operating temperatures including high-temperature superconductors. We propose coil-shaped conductor samples instead of straight samples in order to apply electromagnetic hoop forces on the conductors to realize the real condition. A reference design of a sample for a cable-in-conduit conductor is provided.