Developments of high-T_c superconducting current feeders for a large-scale superconducting coil system

A large-scale superconducting coil system, which is an essential technology for a fusion reactor, requires large capacity and high performance current feeders from the power supplies at the room temperature to the superconducting coils at the operating temperature, which is usually liquid helium temperature at present. The superconducting current feeders are being considered as a promising application of a high temperature superconductor (HTS), which can satisfy the requirements of a large current capacity and a low heat in-leak, simultaneously. To study the feasibility of the HTS current feeders, a melt-textured YBCO bulk superconductor was selected as a candidate material because of its high current transport characteristics. The YBCO disk fabricated by quench and melt growth process was cut into a short sample with the cross section of 7 mm × 7 mm and the length of 40 mm and was mounted on the copper bars to perform the actual large current transport tests. The sample could be successfully excited up to 20 kA at 4.2 K and 10 kA at 77 K. These performance test results and the further R&D items for the HTS current feeders are discussed.