Publications by Rainer Wesche | EPFL Graph Search

The magnet feeders for the European DEMO fusion reactor: Conceptual design and recent advances

Rainer Wesche, Roberto Guarino, Frédéric Michel

The magnet feeders are part of the critical systems of a fusion reactor since they represent the interface between the in-cryostat components at 4.5 K and the room-temperature cryogenic plant and power supply. The European DEMO tokamak foresees 16 toroidal ...

2024

Technical and economic feasibility study of high-current HTS bus bars for fusion reactors

Kamil Sedlák, Rainer Wesche, Roberto Guarino

In this study, we present a technical and economic assessment of high-current HTS bus bars for primary use in fusion reactors. Our objective is to verify the technical feasibility of such conductors and, for this purpose, we carry out a conceptual design o ...

Elsevier2022

Assessment of the Thermal-Hydraulic Performance of the European DEMO NbTi Bus Bars

Rainer Wesche, Kamil Sedlák, Roberto Guarino

We present a numerical assessment of the thermal-hydraulic performance of the NbTi bus bars designed for the European DEMO. We consider the CS, TF and PF bus bars, as well as two alternative TF options for high-current operations. The main sources of stati ...

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2022

The DEMO magnet system - Status and future challenges

Pierluigi Bruzzone, Rainer Wesche, Kamil Sedlák, Davide Uglietti, Federica Demattè, Roberto Guarino, Mithlesh Kumar, Vincenzo D'Auria, Ortensia Dicuonzo, Chiara Frittitta

We present the pre-concept design of the European DEMO Magnet System, which has successfully passed the DEMO plant-level gate review in 2020. The main design input parameters originate from the so-called DEMO 2018 baseline, which was produced using the PRO ...

2022

Parametric study of the TF coil design for the European DEMO

Pierluigi Bruzzone, Kamil Sedlák, Rainer Wesche, Roberto Guarino

In addition to a reduced number of feeders, which would simplify their integration in the cryostat of the tokamak, the present study considers the possibility to reduce the voltage during safety discharge of the toroidal field (TF) coils. A lowered dischar ...

2021

A design proposal for the European DEMO superconducting bus bars and current leads

Pierluigi Bruzzone, Kamil Sedlák, Rainer Wesche, Roberto Guarino

The integration of the feeder system in a tokamak involves complex engineering, manufacturing and logistics issues. Therefore, within the pre-conceptual design activities of the European DEMO fusion reactor, it is important to provide a preliminary sizing ...

2021

Superconductors for fusion: a roadmap

Pierluigi Bruzzone, Kamil Sedlák, Nikolay Bykovskiy, Rainer Wesche

With the first tokamak designed for full nuclear operation now well into final assembly (ITER), and a major new research tokamak starting commissioning (JT60SA), nuclear fusion is becoming a mainstream potential energy source for the future. A critical par ...

2021

Upgrade and Commissioning of the SULTAN Facility to Host Quench Experiments on HTS High Current Conductors

Pierluigi Bruzzone, Kamil Sedlák, Davide Uglietti, Boris Stepanov, Rainer Wesche, Ortensia Dicuonzo

High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) are promising materials for future fusion magnets. One of HTS conductors' main issues is the quench protection: the quench develops much slower than in LTS, delaying the quench detection by voltage monitoring and caus ...

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2021

Estimation of performance of Nb3Sn CICC with thermal strain distribution

Pierluigi Bruzzone, Kamil Sedlák, Rainer Wesche

In the last few years, the critical temperature (Tc) of several ITER cable-in-conduit conductors (CICC) was determined by magnetization measurements at zero current. The distribution of the critical temperatures (Tc), caused by variation of strain in the N ...

2020

Non-twisted stacks of coated conductors for magnets: Analysis of inductance and AC losses

Davide Uglietti, Francesco Grilli, Rainer Wesche

Almost all present High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) cable designs for magnets are based on twisted or transposed concepts that were developed for Low Temperature Superconducting (LTS) cables. However, requirements for LTS materials (like filament twi ...

2020