Magnet Safety Studies
Since 1982, the PSFC Technology and Engineering Division, with support
from the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, has been engaged in studies
and analyses of magnet safety. These studies were initiated in response
to the increase in size and stored energy of superconducting magnetic energy
storage systems. Understanding and planning for magnet safety is a complex
issue which has required - and continues to require - the application of
many disciplines. One of the initial tasks was to survey magnet system
failures around the world and to analyze their causes. That survey was
updated for fusion magnet systems in 1989, and again in 1993/4. Other related
work has involved a cooperative program with IPP Garching to study behavior
of small coils tested to burnout, and the development of computer codes
to study quench propagation in both conventional superconducting magnets,
and in magnets wound with superconducting Cable-In-Conduit-Conductors
(CICC's).
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