Magnet Quench & Protection

A quench is when part of a superconducting magnet suddenly goes resistive, dumping huge stored energy. Protecting against it is critical magnet engineering.

What

Loss of superconductivity in part of the coil

Danger

Local heating from the magnet's stored energy

Kronos design

Graded, demountable pack + quench protection

Bounding case

30 T hot-spot MIITs analysis (S70)

A quench is the sudden, unwanted transition of part of a superconducting magnet from the zero-resistance state to a normal, resistive one. Once a small region goes resistive it heats up, which can spread the quench — and because a fusion magnet stores enormous energy, an uncontrolled quench can locally melt the conductor. Quench protection is therefore one of the most safety-critical parts of magnet engineering.

Kronos MetroVolt addresses it with a graded, demountable REBCO winding pack and a dedicated quench-protection system that detects a quench early and safely dumps the stored energy. The deposited analyses include a bounding hot-spot calculation (measured in MIITs) at a conservative 30 T case (S70), alongside the strain and structural checks that keep the 24.6 T operating point within margin.