Preliminary results of the U.S. pool-boiling coils from the IFSMTF full-array tests

The Large Coil Task to develop superconducting magnets for fusion reactors, is now in the midst of full-array tests in the International Fusion Superconducting Magnet Test Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Included in the test array are two pool-boiling coils designed and fabricated by U.S. manufacturers, General Dynamics/Convair Division and General Electric/Union Carbide Corporation. So far, both coils have been energized to full design currents in the single-coil tests, and the General Dynamics coil has reached the design point in the first Standard-I full-array test. Both coils performed well in the charging experiments. Extensive heating tests and the heavy instrumentation of these coils have, however, revealed some generic limitations of large pool-boiling superconducting coils. Details of these results and their analyses are reported.