skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The superconducting magnet system for the Tokamak Physics Experiment

Journal Article · · Fusion Technology
OSTI ID:41440
; ; ; ; ; ;  [1]; ; ;  [2]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
  2. Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States); and others

The superconducting magnet system for the Tokamak Physics eXperiment (TPX) will be the first all superconducting magnet system for a Tokamak, where the poloidal field coils, in addition to the toroidal field coils are superconducting. The magnet system is designed to operate in a steady state mode, and to initiate the plasma discharge ohmically. The toroidal field system provides a peak field of 4.0 Tesla on the plasma axis at a plasma major radius of 2.25 m. The peak field on the niobium 3-tin, cable-in-conduit (CIC) conductor is 8.4 Tesla for the 16 toroidal field coils. The toroidal field coils must absorb approximately 5 kW due to nuclear heating, eddy currents, and other sources. The poloidal field system provides a total of 18 volt seconds to initiate the plasma and drive a plasma current up to 2 MA. The poloidal field system consists of 14 individual coils which are arranged symmetrically above and below the horizontal mid plane. Four pairs of coils make up the central solenoid, and three pairs of poloidal ring coils complete the system. The poloidal field coils all use a cable-in-conduit conductor, using either niobium 3-tin (Nb{sub 3}Sn) or niobium titanium (NbTi) superconducting strands depending on the operating conditions for that coil. All of the coils are cooled by flowing supercritical helium, with inlet and outlet connections made on each double pancake. The superconducting magnet system has gone through a conceptual design review, and is in preliminary design started by the LLNL/MIT/PPPL collaboration. A number of changes have been made in the design since the conceptual design review, and are described in this paper. The majority of the design and all fabrication of the superconducting magnet system will be ,accomplished by industry, which will shortly be taking over the preliminary design. The magnet system is expected to be completed in early 2000.

DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
41440
Report Number(s):
CONF-940630-; ISSN 0748-1896; TRN: 95:002923-0025
Journal Information:
Fusion Technology, Vol. 26, Issue 3; Conference: 11. topical meeting on the technology of fusion energy, New Orleans, LA (United States), 19-24 Jun 1994; Other Information: PBD: Nov 1994
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English