The assets are a one-of-a-kind facility, fully equipped to design, manufacture, and test a broad range of superconducting magnet and cryogenic component configurations in one location. The facilities, built on a 400-acre site five miles west of Waxahachie, Texas, include the Magnet Development Laboratory, the Magnet Test Laboratory, and the Accelerator Systems String Test facility, with three integrated liquid helium cryogenic systems. The 200,000 sq ft buildings feature advanced tooling for rapid prototype development and manufacture of large-scale superconducting magnets and components that is enhanced by materials testing laboratories, CAD/CAM systems, an extensive computer network, and software tools. Testing capabilities include warm and cold testing of superconducting cables, short magnets, long magnets and magnet strings, augmented by advanced instrumentation, data acquisition and control systems. The large-capacity liquid helium refrigerators can provide refrigeration efficiently over a wide load range. They can support testing of large-scale cryogenic and superconducting systems.
The Center will make these assets available on an as-needed basis users who do not have access to such facilities and cannot justify the capital investment to build these facilities in-house. The objective is to complement the user's facilities and to expand the user's efforts in a cost-effective manner.
The Center's assets have the potential to impact many important research, development, and commercial applications of superconductivity and cryogenics. Several projects representing the best use of these assets, both in the near_term and long_term, have been identified and studied. These projects include participation in the planned U.S. effort to build special magnets for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe; development and testing of superconducting magnet components for the Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) fusion programs; large-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems; utility power transmission; and prototyping of high-temperature superconductor applications in collaboration with the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TCSUH).
Investigators from national laboratories and universities around the country have proposed basic and applied science experiments that take advantage of the Center's assets, enabling them to extend the reach of their investigations. The experiments proposed and under study involve verification of quantum electrodynamics predictions and search for axions and the study of large-scale turbulence at unprecedented high Reynolds numbers using liquid helium.
Other superconductivity and cryogenics applications include direct-wire winding techniques to manufacture precise coils with high packing factors for superconducting and normal conductor electric motors, and for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) propulsion systems. The Center will provide space and resources to small start-up companies to develop new manufacturing capabilities in superconductivity and educational opportunities through student cooperative and operator training programs. Important applications under investigation and development at the Center are liquid helium wind tunnels and tow tanks, 1.8 K research facilities, large helium refrigeration for other cryogenic fluids applications, and equipment development.
Projected operating costs for the Center indicate that the implementation of a significant number of the projects identified can make the Center self-sufficient after five years of operation. As the largest and most modern and completely equipped development and test facility of its kind, the Applied Superconductivity and Cryogenic Technology Center can, without further construction funds, enhance and accelerate the progress of superconducting and cryogenic technology across the entire spectrum of applications.