Design of a 0.2 MJ conduction cooled Nb/sub 3/Sn SMES system

A superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system can be used to develop methods for improving power duality where a short interruption of power could lead to a long and costly shutdown. The commercialized /spl mu/-SMES concepts are based on NbTi technology. Nb/sub 3/Sn has excellent superconducting properties but unfortunately it is extremely brittle and usually the coils are made with the time consuming wind and react method. On the other hand, a Nb/sub 3/Sn magnet enables a coil operating temperature around 10 K. Considerable advances in cryocooler technology have been made during the past ten years-pushed partly by the progress of HTS technology. Therefore a Nb/sub 3/Sn coil with a reliable cryocooler unit could be a preferable alternative when designing different kinds of magnet systems. Based on these viewpoints a cryogen free Nb/sub 3/Sn SMES system operating at 10 K has been designed in order to compensate a short term loss of power.