Design of a 60 kA Flux Pump for Fusion Toroidal Field Coils

Abstract

High-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets offer a novel pathway to magnetically confined fusion energy generation. Reactor-scale fusion devices require tens of kA of current to generate large toroidal fields for magnetic confinement. Operating HTS magnets at kA-current levels is difficult due to unavoidable joint resistances that require active driving of current. The large footprint and energy demand of a solid-state power supply and multi-kA current leads present significant constraints on the size, cost and efficiency of a fusion tokamak. An alternative approach is to use an HTS flux pump, which can generate and sustain persistent currents in HTS coils at the kA-levels required by fusion magnet systems. Here, we outline the design of a 60 kA transformer-rectifier flux pump for energizing and sustaining an 80 mH HTS fusion magnet. The flux pump is driven by an iron-core transformer with copper primary and HTS secondary windings. This is rectified by switching elements in the superconducting circuit into a uni-directional dc voltage output which charges the inductive load. To charge the load coil to 60 kA in 24 hours, an output dc voltage of 55 mV is needed. However, only 6 mV is required to maintain a long-term steady current of 60 kA. Such a device can significantly reduce the cost and footprint of future fusion reactor designs.