Elaboration of a Promising Design of the HTS Conductor for the Central Solenoid of a Compact Thermonuclear Reactor TRT

Abstract

The results of the preliminary development of the HTS conductor based on the VS-type design and parallel stacks for the central solenoid of the compact thermonuclear reactor TRT are presented. One of the main problems that need to be solved for the successful implementation of such projects is the creation of high-current high-temperature superconducting (HTS) conductors for Toroidal Field coils (TF) and Central Solenoid (CS) sections. The conductor must have a high engineering current density of at least 90 A/mm2. The induction of the magnetic field in the central solenoid reaches 14 T, which leads to the occurrence of large mechanical stresses due to the influence of Lorentz forces. Like many large magnets, CS has a lot of stored energy. For the safe withdrawal of stored energy from the magnet, it requires the inclusion of elements in the conductor that provide an acceptable level of electrical voltage and heating of the conductor insulation. Thus, a sufficient amount of stabilizing and reinforcing materials should be placed in the conductor. In addition, the “cable-in-conduit” type of conductor must have channels for pumping the refrigerant. Two fundamentally different versions of the conductor based on radially arranged REBCO tapes and on the basis of pre-assembled tape packages are considered. Based on the analysis of the magnetic field distribution in the conductor by finite element method, the design characteristics of the proposed conductors under various operating modes of the electromagnetic system (EMS) of the tokamak TRT was evaluated. The results of the evaluation of the current carrying capacity of the conductor and the estimation of energy losses in a changing magnetic field in comparison with known methods are also presented.