Bradley Leuw;Rodney A. Badcock;Eleanor V. W. Chambers;Joshua P. M. Ellingham;Piet Guersen;Kent Hamilton;Joseph Jones;Matt Lynch;Jack Morris;Les Meadows;James H. P. Rice;Mohammad Siamaki;Sam Schimanski;Joe Todd;Sriharsha Venuturumilli;Ratu C. Mataira
{"title":"Progress Toward a 10-kA Superconducting Power Supply for Levitated Dipole Reactors","authors":"Bradley Leuw;Rodney A. Badcock;Eleanor V. W. Chambers;Joshua P. M. Ellingham;Piet Guersen;Kent Hamilton;Joseph Jones;Matt Lynch;Jack Morris;Les Meadows;James H. P. Rice;Mohammad Siamaki;Sam Schimanski;Joe Todd;Sriharsha Venuturumilli;Ratu C. Mataira","doi":"10.1109/TASC.2026.3654477","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"OpenStar Technologies is a private fusion company in New Zealand, developing a fusion reactor based on the levitated dipole. The levitated dipole has a stable magnetic configuration, which provides the basis for the design of a fusion concept. Levitated dipole-based fusion reactors will require large-scale high-field high temperature superconductor (HTS) magnets operating with consistent “quasi-persistent” current while levitating. Quasi-persistent currents in levitating magnets can only be supplied by on-board power supplies that continuously replenish the energy lost from magnet operation. OpenStar has designed, built, and validated an HTS rectifier which to date has charged a 0.53 H non-insulated HTS magnet to 824 A. The initial charging of this magnet to 180 kJ over 60 hours demonstrates the first integration of a large scale HTS magnet with an embedded HTS rectifier. In October 2024, this enabled OpenStar to reach the milestone of first plasma.","PeriodicalId":13104,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity","volume":"36 5","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11355960/","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/1/16 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
OpenStar Technologies is a private fusion company in New Zealand, developing a fusion reactor based on the levitated dipole. The levitated dipole has a stable magnetic configuration, which provides the basis for the design of a fusion concept. Levitated dipole-based fusion reactors will require large-scale high-field high temperature superconductor (HTS) magnets operating with consistent “quasi-persistent” current while levitating. Quasi-persistent currents in levitating magnets can only be supplied by on-board power supplies that continuously replenish the energy lost from magnet operation. OpenStar has designed, built, and validated an HTS rectifier which to date has charged a 0.53 H non-insulated HTS magnet to 824 A. The initial charging of this magnet to 180 kJ over 60 hours demonstrates the first integration of a large scale HTS magnet with an embedded HTS rectifier. In October 2024, this enabled OpenStar to reach the milestone of first plasma.
期刊介绍:
IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity (TAS) contains articles on the applications of superconductivity and other relevant technology. Electronic applications include analog and digital circuits employing thin films and active devices such as Josephson junctions. Large scale applications include magnets for power applications such as motors and generators, for magnetic resonance, for accelerators, and cable applications such as power transmission.