Prospect of employing conductors at low temperature in power cables and in power transformers

Case study on the US superconducting power transmission program

“…Initially, the industry managed and supported a wide-ranging R&D program focusing on near (10 year payoff), intermediate (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25) year payoff) and long (>25 year payoff) term R&D programs. Beginning in the mid 1970s, however, EPRI's emphasis shifted more and more toward the support of near term R&D (which now accounts' for more than 70'A of the Institute's R&D budget).…”

Helium research in support of superconducting power transmission :

“…The rate of decay is proportional to the temperature difference between the go and return streams (i.e., to the rate of refrigeration) which in turn is proportional to the thermal resistance between the go and return streams. Thermally-uncoupled returns Prior to the proposal of Dean and Jensen [2] for the BNL line, Wilkinson [3], Garwin…”

“…2) Numerical solution in terms of dimensionless variables for the constant property, constant mass flow rate case. 3) Experimental study of the thermally-coupled return arrangement for: cool-down to 6 K Numerical integration of equations (1.4) through (1.8) was accomplished using the computer program PDECOL developed by Madsen and Sincovec [9].…”