World Record：90kA ITER Trial HTS Current Leads

Great progress has been made on the research and development of the trial leads of the 68 kA and 52 kA High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) current leads by mid-December 2008. December 18-19, HTS current leads have been operated at 85 kA for 64 minutes and at 90 kA for 5 minutes which breaks the world’s record.

As the pivotal assembly, HTS current leads transmit high power currents from the room temperature power supplies to
the low temperature superconducting coils in FEEDER system of ITER project. It is one of the most complicated system that superconductor, cryogenics, vacuum insulation and high voltage are involved.

The 68kA and 52kA HTS current leads have been experimented for more than one year in ASIPP. After several rounds of researches and experiments, many intractable problems are solved. Since December 16th, the HTS current leads were tested smoothly, in December 19 afternoon, HTS current leads have been operated at 90 kA for 5 minutes,setting up a new world’s record in current lead capacity. (Zhou Tingzhi reports)