Research to enable rapid development of High Temperature Superconducting magnets for fusion energy and other applications.

研究促进快速开发用于聚变能和其他应用的高温超导磁体。

• 批准号: MR/T043199/1
• 负责人: Greg Brittles
• 金额: $ 93.55万
• 依托单位: Tokamak Energy (United Kingdom)
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FT043199%2F1
• 关键词: Research; enable; rapid; development; Temperature

Tokamak Energy Ltd is a private company targeting the delivery of fusion as a clean and safe energy source by 2030. The company aims to do this by combining spherical tokamaks, which are a type of magnetic confinement fusion device, with high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets, which can deliver very strong magnetic fields in compact devices. The company believes that HTS spherical tokamaks are the key route to delivering commercial fusion energy on a rapid timescale. This project aims to address two key challenges in the field of HTS magnet technology, in order to accelerate the development of HTS magnets for fusion energy and other applications. The first challenge is to develop a technical and strategic approach towards the characterisation and quality assurance (QA) of HTS conductors, then implement this on several hundred kilometres of conductor procured over a period of several years. The key difficulty here is that the current capacity of rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) HTS conductors is extremely large and has a very complex dependence on temperature, magnetic field strength, field direction and the crystal's nanostructure. Measurement of conductor performance under the end-use conditions in fusion magnets is extremely challenging due to the high magnetic fields and currents involved. Therefore, complete characterisation cannot be carried out routinely despite magnet designs relying crucially on their knowledge. This project will establish the necessary performance indicators (balancing cost, risk and depth of information), develop the methods required to measure them, and implement this on the real conductor as it arrives. The second challenge is the development of dismantlable coil structures for HTS fusion magnets. HTS magnets can be operated at relatively high temperatures (>~20 K) at which substantial heat loads from joints between conductors can be accommodated by cooling systems. Unlike conventional low temperature superconductors (LTS), HTS conductors operated at high temperatures are extremely thermally stable and can therefore tolerate substantial temperature variations of several degrees Kelvin around their structures. This enables dismantlable coil structures to be considered, in which the turns of the magnet can be connected and disconnected from one another during assembly and disassembly. This is an extremely attractive design option for tokamak magnets, where it is advantageous for some coils (e.g. poloidal field coils (PFs) ) to be threaded inside other coil sets (e.g. the toroidal field coils (TFs)). The wider assembly process for tokamaks is also greatly simplified if the coils are dismantlable, for example the assembly of vacuum chambers and neutron shields. Development of dismantlable coils is a multifaceted problem involving development of novel low resistance jointing methods, practical implementation methods in a tokamak assembly hall environment, and design of the wider magnet system to accommodate the joints (including insulation methods and magnet operating principles).

托卡马克能源有限公司是一家私营公司，目标是到2030年将聚变作为一种清洁和安全的能源。该公司的目标是通过将球形托卡马克（一种磁约束聚变装置）与高温超导（HTS）磁体相结合来实现这一目标，高温超导磁体可以在紧凑的设备中提供非常强的磁场。该公司认为，高温超导球形托卡马克是在快速时间尺度上提供商业聚变能的关键途径。该项目旨在解决高温超导磁体技术领域的两个关键挑战，以加速高温超导磁体在聚变能和其他应用领域的发展。第一个挑战是开发一种技术和战略方法，用于高温超导导体的表征和质量保证（QA），然后在几年内采购的数百公里导体上实施。这里的关键困难是稀土钡铜氧化物（REBCO）HTS导体的电流容量非常大，并且对温度、磁场强度、场方向和晶体的纳米结构具有非常复杂的依赖性。由于涉及高磁场和电流，在聚变磁体的最终使用条件下测量导体性能极具挑战性。因此，尽管磁体设计关键依赖于他们的知识，但不能常规地进行完整的表征。该项目将建立必要的绩效指标（平衡成本、风险和信息深度），制定衡量这些指标所需的方法，并在真实的导体到达时将其实施。第二个挑战是开发用于HTS聚变磁体的可磁化线圈结构。HTS磁体可以在相对高的温度（>~20 K）下操作，在该温度下，来自导体之间的接头的大量热负荷可以由冷却系统适应。与传统的低温超导体（LTS）不同，在高温下工作的HTS导体是非常热稳定的，因此可以容忍其结构周围的几个开氏度的显著温度变化。这使得能够考虑可拆卸的线圈结构，其中磁体的匝可以在组装和拆卸期间彼此连接和断开。这对于托卡马克磁体来说是非常有吸引力的设计选项，其中有利的是，一些线圈（例如，极向场线圈（PF））被穿在其他线圈组（例如，环向场线圈（TF））内部。如果线圈是可拆卸的，那么托卡马克的更广泛的组装过程也会大大简化，例如真空室和中子屏蔽的组装。可拆卸线圈的发展是一个多方面的问题，涉及到新的低电阻焊接方法的发展，在托卡马克装配大厅环境中的实际实施方法，以及更广泛的磁铁系统的设计，以适应关节（包括绝缘方法和磁铁工作原理）。

项目成果

In-situ measurements of the effect of radiation damage on the superconducting properties of coated conductors

辐射损伤对涂层导体超导性能影响的现场测量

• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6668/ac1523
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Superconductor Science and Technology
• 影响因子: 3.6
• 作者: Iliffe W