A NEW STEP IN AC SUPERCONDUCTING CONDUCTORS

High current AC superconducting cables are made of numerous co-assembl ed wires. The assembly mode may be a source of performance degradation , due to different causes, such as wire deformation, mechanical unstab ilities, heating, anomalous current distribution among the different w ires, longitudinal self magnetic field, unadequate junctions. These po ssible causes have been systematically investigated ; significant resu lts are presented for possible applications of high-performance multi- kA conductors.