SULTAN Test Facility
SULTAN test facility: the blue vessel is the cryostat that houses the magnets generating 10.8 T; the green structure is scaffolding; the team of the Applied Superconductivity Group is standing on an access platform. © EPFL / Željko Gatarić
SULTAN (from the German SUpraLeiter Test ANlage) is the reference magnet facility for testing forced-flow, high-current superconductors up to fields of 10.8 T. It consists of a superconducting split solenoid cooled by forced-flow supercritical helium and has qualified the conductors of ITER and JT-60SA. More recently, conductors for other fusion devices — SPARC, BEST, CFETR, DTT and STEP — and for industrial partners such as CFS, Proxima Fusion, ACT and Tokamak Energy have also been tested here.
What we Test
- Forced-flow and cable-in-conduit conductor samples, including joints
- Conductor DC performance in a background field up to 10.8 T at sample currents up to 100 kA at temperatures from 4.5 to 50 K
- AC losses in AC fields (up to 0.4 T, 0.01–6 Hz)
- Minimum quench energy in pulsed fields (up to 3 T amplitude, 140 ms period)
- Stability of conductor performance under cyclic electromagnetic and thermal loading
Key Parameters
| Parameter | Value |
| Background field | up to 10.8 T |
| Test well | 94 × 144 mm2 , 1 % field uniformity over approx. 300 mm |
| Sample current | up to 100 kA with superconducting transformer |
| Cooling (both SULTAN and sample) | supercritical He, 10 bar, 2 × 10 g/s (at 4.5 K) |
| Temperature range | 4.5-50 K |
| Repetitive AC field | up to 0.4 T amplitude, 0.01-6 Hz |
| Single pulse | up to 3 T amplitude, 140 ms pulse period |
Access and Collaboration
SULTAN is available to laboratories and companies from all over the world, within international collaborations such as ITER and EUROfusion and in bilateral projects. Sample design, preparation, heat treatment, assembly and instrumentation are often carried out by our team in Villigen; see Testing services for how a test campaign is organised.