Chapter 3.1: Current Leads for ITER

According to the procurement agreement between International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor International Organization (ITER IO) and China Domestic Agency (CNDA), Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) is responsible for the design, fabrication and testing of a series of high temperature superconducting (HTS) current leads (CLs) for ITER since 2007. Three types of HTS CLs have been developed, manufactured and tested, which contain a cold section based on the use of Bi-2223/Silver–Gold alloy tapes and helium forced cooling resistive part optimized for the rated current operations at 68kA, 55 kA, and 10 kA. In this chapter, an outline of the design of the leads is presented, together with the manufacture and testing at ASIPP.