Page 138 - Fundamentals of Magnetic Thermonuclear Reactor Design

122 Fundamentals of Magnetic Thermonuclear Reactor Design

FIGURE 5.3 First-generation superconducting strands.

twists of strands encased in the pressure jacket (‘cable-in-conduit’ or CIC)
conductors.
The 1980s saw one more technical innovation, namely, the high-temperature
SCs that have introduced one of the most important vectors of power, elec-
trical and instrument engineering development. Theoretical predictions do not
exclude the possibility of superconductivity at temperatures close to room tem-
perature. If this hypothesis comes true, we should expect a radical renovation of
the entire field of electric engineering.

5.2 SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNET SYSTEMS
OF ELECTROPHYSICAL FACILITIES

5.2.1 Summary Characteristics of Superconducting Magnets
SCs allow a decrease in power input needed to create electromagnetic fields
through a manifold increase in winding structural current density (Fig. 5.4). The
use of superconductive magnet systems (MS) is the only option available that
can deliver further progress on experimental elementary particle and nuclear
fusion physics development. The power needed to excite a magnetic field in a
magnetic fusion reactor (MFR) must a priori be lower than the output fusion
power. With fusion machines growing in dimensions, this requirement becomes
impossible to fulfil with resistive conductors.
Since 1968, large-scale superconducting magnets, cooled by immersion in
liquid helium (LHe), have been used as an instrument of experimental physics
to generate stationary magnetic fields. This was preceded by the deployment of
a serial commercial production of metallic composite SCs, as well as the de-
velopment and practical implementation of the ‘cryostatic stabilisation’ of SCs
by copper or aluminium layers as stabilisers. Cryostatic stabilisation ensured
the reliable operation of a number of large-scale superconducting devices and
unique electrophysical systems.
The invention of superconducting accelerator magnets and inductive stor-
age systems in the early 1970s gave a powerful impetus to the theoretical and
technological development of superconductive MS using SCs with intrinsically