Conceptual design of a High Temperature Superconductor current feeder system for ITER

Abstract

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project envisages a techno-economically feasible solution of its current feeder system in order to reduce the overall cryogenic requirements and operational costs. Since the ITER magnet system has a long stand-by time with respect to its operation duty cycle, it is essential to optimize the operational costs of the current feeder system taking into consideration both, the full current and stand-by modes. The present HTS technology has reached the maturity that HTS conductors are applicable for the current feeder system of ITER. The replacement of the actually planned conventional current leads by HTS current leads would provide considerable savings in the refrigeration investment and operational costs. Another option is the substitution of the water cooled high current aluminum feeders by HTS feeders, so called HTS bus bars. In this paper, the different design options of Bi-2223/Ag HTS based bus bars as prototype unit modules for ITER are discussed. The performance of different cooling schemes for HTS bus bars is studied and the design related critical issues e.g. metallic transition (65 K −300 K) and bending of bus bar, AC loss, thermal loss and reliability of the cooling system are investigated.