Design, Manufacture and Test of a 82 kA React&Wind TF Conductor for DEMO

The Toroidal field coils (TFC) of the EUROFusion DEMO reactor call for Nb
₃
Sn conductor with high field and high current. Another major requirement is cost-effectiveness, to keep the ratio of investment to electric power in the same range of the competing energy sources (fission, hydro, coal, gas, etc.). The TFC proposed by the Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) is based on a double-layer Nb
₃
Sn/NbTi winding. A react-and-wind flat cable is the core of the Nb
₃
Sn conductor, with six grades to minimize the cost and maintain a roughly constant temperature margin of 1.5 K over the winding cross section. A short length section of the high grade Nb
₃
Sn conductor has been manufactured using relevant industrial cabling equipment. One hundred kilograms of 1.5-mm Nb
₃
Sn strand has been procured at WST with average J
_c
up to 15% higher than specified (J
_c
≥ 1000 A/mm
²
at 12 T/4.2 K). A dedicated cabling line has been set up at TRATOS cavi (Italy), producing over 350 m of dummy cable and about 13 m of superconducting cable. The assembly of the cable into a conduit by longitudinal laser welding of two steel profiles is demonstrated, including the QA procedures. A test sample has been prepared at SPC by heat treating straight sections of the cable and encasing it into a steel jacket after the heat treatment to minimize the thermal strain. The test was carried out in three test campaigns at the EDIPO facility at SPC. The test program includes Dc performance at the relevant operating conditions. An assessment of the conductor test results in terms of strand performance suggests that the applicable thermal strain is less than -0.33%. The performance is stable upon load cycles.