The fusion power density produced in a tokamak is proportional to its magnetic field strength to the fourth power. Second-generation high temperature superconductor (2G HTS) wires demonstrate remarkable engineering current density (averaged over the full wire), JE, at very high magnetic fields, driving progress in fusion and other applications. The key challenge for HTS wires has been to offer an acceptable combination of high and consistent superconducting performance in high magnetic fields, high volume supply, and low price. Here we report a very high and reproducible JE in practical HTS wires based on a simple YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) superconductor formulation with Y2O3 nanoparticles, which have been delivered in just nine months to a commercial fusion customer in the largest-volume order the HTS industry has seen to date. We demonstrate a novel YBCO superconductor formulation without the c-axis correlated nano-columnar defects that are widely believed to be prerequisite for high in-field performance. The simplicity of this new formulation allows robust and scalable manufacturing, providing, for the first time, large volumes of consistently high performance wire, and the economies of scale necessary to lower HTS wire prices to a level acceptable for fusion and ultimately for the widespread commercial adoption of HTS.

Second-generation high-temperature superconductor (2G HTS) tapes have demonstrated the ability to generate high magnetic fields and critical currents at a wide operating temperature range. In this paper, we study the mechanical properties of 2G HTS tape measured simultaneously with its critical current. The lattice deformations in the tape’s substrate caused by applied mechanical stress were measured by neutron diffraction. In our experiments, the 2G HTS tape was exposed to uniaxial tensile force ranging from 250 to 1100 N at temperature 77 K. The current through the tape was scanned in the range from 22 to 42 A. The experimental results have been obtained in a cryogenic testing chamber for neutron scattering measurements of internal stresses under load with the incorporated HTS current leads. Critical stress is a vital parameter required for the modeling and designing of advanced superconducting magnets and also a variety of different superconducting applications based on 2G HTS tapes.