Fusion superconducting coil passes test

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MSimon
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Fusion superconducting coil passes test

Post by MSimon »

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http://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/article ... -test.aspx

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A superconducting test coil for ITER, the next generation nuclear fusion reactor that many hope will open the way to almost limitless cheap, fairly clean power, has been tested successfully.

1.5m across and weighing 6 tons, the niobium titanium poloidal field coil reached a stable operation at 52,000A in a magnetic field of 6.4 Tesla. Poloidal coils will be used to maintain the plasma equilibrium and shape inside the ITER Tokomak reactor.
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tonybarry
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Post by tonybarry »

Nice, Simon. That's WB-100 size ... but we'd need six of them and how much per unit for a bulk purchase?

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Tony Barry

Jboily
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Post by Jboily »

tonybarry wrote:Nice, Simon. That's WB-100 size ... but we'd need six of them and how much per unit for a bulk purchase?
I have seen a superconductor study showing the current cost for superconductor is around $100 per 10KA*m. Just as a guess, this should make it $200K per coils for the superconducting material alone. I would not be surprised at a cost of over $1M for one single coil. The ITER will need quite a few of them.

Is anyone know if I am far from the mark?

classicpenny
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Post by classicpenny »

That's about what I estimated:

Elsewhere in Talk-Polywell, it has been said that the company that makes the new MgB2 superconductor wire supplies it with a round cross-section. A 0.3 m coil producing 0.45 T would require 10^5 Amp-turns. A 0.3 m coil producing 2 T would require 4.5 times as many Amp-turns or 4.5 x 10^5 A-turns. A 3.0 m coil to produce the same 2T field would require ten times as many: 4.5 x 10^6 A-turns. The current MgB2 wire is good for 100 A. The 2T, 3 m coil would require

4.5 x 10^6 A-turns ÷ 100 A = 4.5 x 10^4 turns

At 10 m per turn (roughly) that would be 4.5 x 10^5 m, or 450 km.

If the company's projections are correct, they are talking $2.00 per meter for 2008, so 4.5 x 10^5 m would cost $900,000. Per coil.

Tombo, who worked with the submarine telephone cable industry believes that such a length of SC cable is doable.

MSimon
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Post by MSimon »

The Numbers sound about right.

You can buy an MRI machine for about $1 million. I think they run about 1 T.

I believe they use 6 coils.

Add in the cost of water jackets and you are at around $10 mil or so for a set for prototypes. If you can use MgB it might be 1/2 that plus lower weight.

Currently MgB strands are 1 KM and can be spliced.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

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