Lessons learned from twenty-year operation of the Large Helical Device poloidal coils made from cable-in-conduit conductors

The Large Helical Device (LHD) superconducting magnet system consists of two pairs of helical coils and three pairs of poloidal coils. The poloidal coils use cable-in-conduit (CIC) conductors, which have now been adopted in many fusion devices, with forced cooling by supercritical helium. The poloidal coils were first energized with the helical coils on March 27, 1998. Since that time, the coils have experienced 54,600 h of steady cooling, 10,600 h of excitation operation, and nineteen thermal cycles for twenty years. During this period, no superconducting-to-normal transition of the conductors has been observed. The stable operation of the poloidal coils demonstrates that a CIC conductor is suited to large-scale superconducting magnets. The AC loss has remained constant, even though a slight decrease was observed in the early phase of operation. The hydraulic characteristics have been maintained without obstruction over the entire period of steady cooling. The experience gained from twenty years of operation has also provided lessons regarding malfunctions of peripheral equipment

Long-Term Monitoring of Hydraulic Characteristics of LHD Poloidal Coils

We present a fourteen-year data summary of the hydraulic characteristics of the large helical device (LHD) poloidal coils. The superconductors of the poloidal coils are cable-in-conduit conductors (CICC) cooled by circulated supercritical helium. The long-term operation of the LHD demonstrates that the initial hydraulic characteristics can be maintained without flow obstruction. Fine mesh filters installed at the inlet trapped impurities during cool-down of the coils, confirmed by monitoring the pressure drop of the filters. The filters have an important role in removing particles of impurities in the helium and maintaining the hydraulic characteristics of the coils