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This paper describes the design of a compact levitated superconducting coil for the production of a magnetic dipole field to eventually trap positron-electron plasma. The closed 300 turn coil is to be constructed from Bi-2223 high-Tc superconducting tape, directly cooled on a cryogenic cold head (with thermal contact enhanced using helium gas), and inductively energized with a second superconducting coil mounted on the same cold head. Levitation will be achieved from above using a water-cooled copper coil outside the vacuum chamber and its current will be feedback controlled using vertical position information from a laser ranger.

The local magnetic induction was measured by Hall sensors on different places above Rutherford-type superconducting cables with NbTi/Cu strands, used for the helical coils of the LHD project. The conductor was several times the twist pitch of the cable and was bent into a circular form to assure constant applied magnetic field from the external split coil. Both the local magnetic moment of the cable and the local time constant τ showed clear oscillatory behaviors at ramping down the applied field from 4 T. The periodicity corresponds to the twist pitch of the cable. However, the amplitudes of both parameters are smaller than those expected from previous theories. Three effects are mentioned for explaining the differences between experimental results and theory. On some places, the magnetic moment changed unexpectedly its polarity during the discharge. This suggests some type of “paramagnetic” contribution in the induced currents. We show that in such cases τ can be deduced from the time tm at which the magnetic moment has maximum. The derived relation between tm and τ is tested in such cases when the determination of τ from the experimental results is possible. Very good agreement is achieved between experimental results and theory.

The Large Helical Device (LHD) is a heliotron-type toroidal fusion experimental device which will provide useful and reliable data sets for high temperature plasmas with an equivalent Q value of 0.1–0.35. One of the crucial tasks of LHD is to demonstrate steady-state operations by taking the advantage of currentless plasmas. In this respect, the coil systems are fully superconducting (SC); consisting of a pair of helical coils, three pairs of poloidal coils and nine bus-lines, all of which are presently in the final stage of assembly. The helical coils and the Outer Vertical (OV) poloidal coils are the world largest SC coils among the existing fusion devices. The flexible SC bus-lines are one of the innovative components newly applied through this project. The technological development of the SC magnets took key roles in LHD.

Helical coils for LHD are pool-cooled superconducting coils. In order to produce a fine magnetic surface, highly accurate manufacturing tolerances within ±2 mm and high rigidity against large electro-magnetic forces are required. Additionally, high current densities of over 50 A mm−2 are necessary to keep enough distance between the helical coil and plasma. The helical coil is designed to enhance cryogenic stability by optimizing the wetted surface fraction of each conductor in considering both the magnetic field and stress in the insulator between conductors. For attaining highly accurate helical winding and cryogenic stability, composite conductors with pure aluminum stabilizers were developed and directly wound on highly accurate thick cases. The actual winding was carried out on-site from January 1995 to May 1996. After that, the top covers of the case were set on the coils and welded very carefully. The entire assembly was installed into an outer supporting shell.

Irregular magnetic fields resonate with the rational surface of the magnetic confinement systems, form magnetic islands and ergodic layers, and destruct the plasma confinement. To avoid this confinement destruction the requirement of an accuracy of 10 −4 in the magnetic field is adopted as the magnetic-accuracy design criterion for the LHD machine. Following this criterion the width of the undesirable magnetic island is kept less than one tenth of the plasma radius. The irregular magnetic field from the superconducting (SC) helical and poloidal coils is produced by winding irregularity, installing irregularity, cooling-down deformations and electromagnetic deformations. The local irregularities such as feeders, layer connections, adjacent-conductor connections of the coils also produce an error field. The eddy currents on the supporting shell structure of SC coils, the cryostat, etc. are also evaluated. All irregular effects are analyzed using Fourier decomposition and field mapping methods for the LHD design, and it is confirmed that the present design of the superconducting coil system satisfies the design criterion for these field irregularities.

Two forced-flow cooled NbTi superconducting coils (TOKI-TF, PF) have been designed and fabricated. The helical coil (TOKI-TF) is a 1/4-scale model of the Large Helical Device (LHD). It has a major radius of 0.9 m, a minor radius of 0.25 m, and a pitch number of 4. Nominal current and maximum field were designed to be 8 kA and 2.8 T, respectively. Another coil (TOKI-PF) was fabricated for the demonstration of LHD poloidal field coils. It consists of two double pancakes with an inner radius of 0.6 m and an outer radius of 0.82 m. The nominal current of 25 kA simulates that of LHD poloidal field coils. Cable-in-conduit-type conductors were used for the both coils. The test facility was also constructed with a vacuum vessel, a liquid nitrogen shield, 30-kA power leads, a heat exchanger, and cryogenic supports. Design concepts and details are presented.

A pool-cooled NbTi superconducting helical coil system (named TOKI-HB) has been fabricated as part of one of the research and development programs for the Large Helical Device (LHD). The main purpose of the construction of this device is to build an entire pool-cooled superconducting helical coil system which is large enough to be extrapolable to LHD. The helical coil has a major radius of 0.8 m and a minor radius of 0.2 m with a helical pitch number of 3. An operating current of 8.9 kA produces a maximum magnetic field of 0.75 T at the geometrical center of the poloidal cross section and 3 T at the coil surface. Basic design concepts of the TOKI-HB device are described together with some issues of the fabrication.

Performance of the LHD cryogenic system in the first year's operation was described making importance on the recovery process after the normal transition of the helical coils. During the excitation tests of the LHD superconducting coils up to 2.75 T, the normal zone propagation was observed in the helical coil and the emergency shut-off of the coil power supplies was carried out. 2,700 l of liquid helium evaporated from the helical coils. The coils and the helium refrigerator were separated automatically and the helium refrigerator could keep its steady state operation. After the pressure and flow rate of the recovery gas from the helical coils were settled down to the normal state, the coils were connected to the helium refrigerator and the cooling was restarted. The system could return to the steady state in which coil excitation is enabling, by only three and a half hours.