High Temperature Superconducting Magnets for Compact Modular Fusion

托卡马克能源公司（TE）为可扩展的核聚变发电开辟了一条潜在的新途径，该途径具有成本效益，不需要庞大的基础设施和资本支出。这项技术将彻底改变世界能源生产——与现有技术相比，它将有可能生产更多的能源，成本更低，不良后果更少（例如，通过消除长期核废料，大幅减少碳排放，同时不需要大片土地）。TE的聚变发电路线利用了两种特定的技术——球形托卡马克和高温超导（HTS）磁体。该公司目前在高温超导磁体领域处于世界领先地位，已经申请了19个专利家族，但希望加快其开发计划，特别是考虑到来自麻省理工学院（MIT）分拆出来的一家公司的新竞争，该公司得到意大利石油公司埃尼（ENI） 5000万美元的资助。我们的愿景是，该项目将在高温超导磁体开发的关键领域取得快速进展，使我们在竞争中保持领先地位，并使我们能够在未来5年内筹集更多的私人投资。关键目标是设计和开发具有特定特征的新型高温超导磁体，这些特征对托卡马克上的某些磁线圈至关重要。这些特性，特别是在1到10秒的时间尺度上改变磁场的能力，将意味着磁铁技术也适用于其他应用，如医疗器械和能源效率/存储。重点研究的主要领域是极向场（PF）高温超导磁体线圈。当线圈中的电流发生变化时，例如在初始通电或调整以控制等离子体时，能量被耗散，使线圈变暖。如果电流扫频速度太快，超导体就会产生电阻，从而更快地加热线圈。在极端情况下，线圈可以进入热失控，或“淬火”。这些“交流损耗”的影响可以通过改变电缆的设计和结构来最小化。所需的PF线圈电流扫描速率比所需的主环向场（TF）磁铁线圈快三个数量级。为了满足这些要求，PF线圈需要创新的电缆结构和不同的淬火保护方法。我们有几个候选解决方案来应对这一技术挑战，并有一个合适的低温试验台来实现原型的快速测试。通过这个项目，我们希望能够提交新的专利申请。在项目期间，我们将评估与其他磁铁应用的最佳方式。

Tokamak Energy (TE) has unlocked a potential new route to scalable fusion power that is cost-effective and does not require huge infrastructure and capital expenditure. The technology will revolutionise world energy production -- it will be possible to produce more energy, more cheaply and with fewer undesirable consequences than existing technologies (e.g. by eliminating long term nuclear waste and dramatically reducing carbon emissions while not requiring huge tracts of land).The TE route to fusion power harnesses two specific technologies -- spherical tokamaks and high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. The company currently has a world leading position in HTS magnets with 19 families of patents already filed, but wishes to accelerate its development programme, particularly given new competition from an MIT spin-out, funded by $50M from Italian oil company, ENI.Our vision is that this project will deliver rapid progress in a key area of HTS magnet development to keep us ahead of the competition and allow us to raise substantially more private investment over the next 5 years.The key objective is to design and develop novel HTS magnets with particular features crucial for certain magnetic coils on tokamaks. These features, especially the ability to alter the magnetic field on a timescale of 1 to 10 seconds, will mean that the magnet technology is also suitable for other applications such as medical instruments and energy efficiency/storage.The main area of focus is poloidal field (PF) HTS magnet coils. When the current in the coil changes, eg during initial energisation or adjustments to control the plasma, energy is dissipated, warming the coil. If the current sweep rate is too fast, the superconductor can become resistive, warming the coil more quickly. In extremis, the coil can go into thermal runaway, or "quench". These "AC loss" effects can be minimised by changes to the cable design and construction. The necessary PF coil current sweep rates are up to three orders of magnitude faster than required for the main toroidal field (TF) magnet coils.To meet these requirements the PF coils need an innovative cable construction and a different quench protection approach. We have several candidate solutions to this technology challenge and a suitable cryogenic test-rig to enable rapid tests of prototypes. We expect to be able to file new patent applications as a result of this project. During the project we will evaluate the best way forward with the other magnet applications.