Development of multifilamentary niobium–titanium and niobium–tin strands for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER) device should demonstrate the scientific and technological possibility of commercial fusion energy production in large scale in order to solve the worldwide energy problem in the future. The superconducting magnet system is the key part of the ITER device to supply high magnetic fields for confining the deuterium–tritium plasma. The multifilament NbTi and Nb3Sn strands with high quality have been studied to meet the specifications of superconducting strands for fabricating poloidal field coils (PF) and toroidal field coils (TF). For NbTi strands with 8306 filaments, Jc of 2910 A mm−2 (4.2 K, 5 T, 0.1 μV cm−1) has been obtained by a conventional process. The proposed process could be used for fabrication of long strands with a unit length more than 5000 m. By an internal tin process the multifilamentary Nb3Sn strands with a diameter of 0.79 mm and a unit length longer than 5000 m have been successfully fabricated. The highest non-Cu Jcn (12 T, 4.2 K, 0.1 μV cm−1) value of 1249 A mm−2 has been obtained. The n-value of Nb3Sn strands is larger than 20 and the residual resistance ratio (RRR) value lies between 150 and 220. The formation of the Nb3Sn superconducting phase together with the evolution of microstructure has been investigated by neutron diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The results indicate that the properties of NbTi and Nb3Sn strands have already met basically the specifications proposed by the ITER program.