HTS current leads for the LHC

Leads for transferring heavy current from power converters, working at room temperature, into the liquid helium environment required to operate superc onducting magnets, have been long recognized as being an immediate applicat ion of the emerging technology of high temperature superconductivity. By co rrect dimensioning of such leads it should be possible to reduce significan tly the cryogenic load which these leads represent. The Large Hadron Collid er (LHC) currently under construction at CERN is by far the largest user of superconducting magnets requiring the transfer of over 3 million amperes o f current, and therefore has much to gain from the use of this technology. After a brief reminder of the motives and the outline of the project, a rev iew will be given of the program to provide helium gas cooled current leads incorporating HTS sections.