FPN14-43

High Temperature Superconductors Coming of Age for Fusion

September 11, 2014

Tokamak Energy, a small company in the UK which evolved from the Culham Laboratory, has built and is operating the first tokamak in the world using all high temperature superconducting magnets. These magnets, which operate at temperatures at or above 20 degrees Kelvin (as opposed to conventional superconducting magnets that operate at around 4 degrees Kelvin) result in sharply reduced refrigeration costs that, in a fusion power plant, also would tend to lower the cost of electricity. Information on the company and its activities can be found at http://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk

A group of scientists and engineers at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) is about to publish a conceptual design paper of a small fusion pilot plant, using high temperature superconducting magnets, that would produce 270 Megawatts of electricity in a tokamak with a major radius about half the size of ITER, the fusion engineering test reactor currently under construction in France. The concept is called ARC (for Affordable, Robust, Compact). For information on this activity, contact Professor Dennis Whyte at MIT: whyte@psfc.mit.edu

Research on advanced superconductors has long been a major focus for Joseph Minervini, Fusion and Technology Division Head at MIT PSFC. He recently formed an informal international working group of magnet researchers who are all interested in the development of high temperature superconductors for fusion magnets. "We should be pursuing (this technology) in earnest to make fusion devices beyond ITER more attractive," he says. For information on this activity, contact minervini@psfc.mit.edu

Dennis Whyte commented, "The access to this new super-conductor technology is really a potential game-changer for fusion energy development." He notes that a "rather modest investment" in developing this technology could allow for higher magnetic fields resulting in smaller, higher power density reactors with demountable coils, resulting in easier maintenance scenarios. These are described in the above mentioned ARC design paper.