Fossil fuels are not a long term solution when it comes to supplying the world with energy. Declining resources of oil, gas and coal and the environmental consequences of burning them require the transition to a sustainable and green energy supply. Further requirements on the new energy source are high reliability and scalability. The approach of compact high field fusion devices like the ARC concept aims to achieve all of these goals. It relies on a high magnetic field to confine the extremely hot fusion plasma. These fields can only be produced running high currents through high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet coils. The fusion reactions release neutrons that over time change the properties of the fusion magnets. The specifics of this process are an open research question that is addressed by the HTS irradiation project. ARC-like power plants will use a special kind of HTS — rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) tapes, also known as coated conductors. A single ARC power plant will require about twenty thousand kilometers of REBCO tape — more than has been produced in the entire history. Consequently the production of coated conductors has to be scaled up tremendously to supply the tape demand created by upcoming fusion power plants. This will reduce the cost of HTS production and enable the economical use of coated conductors in new areas like power transmission and generators. Besides the benefit of an increased energy efficiency in these areas, the additional tape demand further perpetuates the downward spiral of HTS manufacturing costs — eventually also enabling applications like superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems.
Our modern civilization is hungry for energy. To sustaining our current lifestyle, we need about 600 Exa Joule (EJ) globally per year for housing, industry, transportation and infrastructure [1].
About 85% is covered by oil, gas and coal. Burning of fossil fuels emits CO2, 32 giga tons (Gto) in 2020, and is the biggest contribution to climate change. There is a wide consensus to fight global warming - almost all countries have signed the Paris agreement that is a commitment to keep the temperature increase below 2 degrees until the year 2100 [2]. To achieve this, the total amount of CO2 that still can be released into the atmosphere is limited to a few hundred Gto, the exact number depends on the model used [3]. Assuming today's energy mix and consumption to remain constant, this CO2 budget would be used up before 2040.
