Test results of a 20 kA high temperature superconductor current lead using REBCO tapes

Abstract

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has developed a 20 kA high temperature superconductor (HTS) current lead (CL) using the second generation material REBCO, as industry worldwide concentrate on the production of this material. The aim was to demonstrate the possibility of replacing the Bi-2223/AgAu tapes by REBCO tapes, while for easy comparison of results, all other components are copies of the 20 kA HTS CL manufactured for the satellite tokamak JT-60SA. After the manufacture of all CL components including the newly developed REBCO module, the assembly of the CL has been executed at KIT and an experiment has been carried out in the CuLTKa test facility where the REBCO CL was installed and connected to a JT-60SA CL via a superconducting bus bar. The experiment covers steady state operation up to 20 kA, pulsed operation, measurement of the heat load at 4.5 K end, loss-of-flow-accident simulations, and quench performance studies. Here the results of these tests are reported and directly compared to those of the JT-60SA CL.