Magnetic personalities at Tokamak Energy form separate division Brit nuclear fusion firm Tokamak Energy has formed a separate division to commercialize the superconducting magnet tech it developed for reactors in other markets including renewable energy or transport. The Oxfordshire-based company last year teamed up with General Atomics in the US to work on high temperature superconducting …
The superconductors aren't new, neither are superconducting magnets. They are just making superconducting magnets in a new way. Everything here looks doable with today's technology.
High temperature (anything over -196C, the boiling point of nitrogen) superconductors haven't been used in magnets until now because they're usually brittle ceramics made in ways that aren't compatible with winding them into coils. If this new technology can make superconducting magnets that work at liquid nitrogen temperatures, that's a big win over the old ones that need liquid helium. Liquid helium needs very special handling and equipment, liquid nitrogen can be stored in household a thermos flask. That leads to massive cost savings if you can use nitrogen instead of helium.
"....If this new technology can make superconducting magnets that work at liquid nitrogen temperatures, that's a big win...."
I think you understate significantly. It would be absolutely HUGE.
It's orders of magnitude cheaper both to buy and to use liquid nitrogen than it is to use liquid helium, and there's no risk of nitrogen suddenly being rationed as has happened recently.
Bulk liquid nitrogen is typically 15 cents per litre. Helium will usually be tens of dollars.
You don't normally bother to recycle nitrogen, but unless you're NASA that's a luxury you can't usually afford with helium.
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