41 - "That article totally contradicts what you said about the magnets. You said they were obsolete; the article says they were too far beyond the envelope."
The article says it was a giant boondoggle - and I agree. Typical government, makework project. so they wouldn't build your super expensive, out of date toy, which I was supposed to pay for.
Using 75 year old technology, instead of waiting a bit and using 5 year old (at the time) high temperature superconductivity technology:
Introduction to High-Temperature Superconductivity
http://www.uh.edu/research/tcsuh/hts_intro.html In 1911, Heike Kamerling Onnes discovered superconductivity (the ability of a material to carry electricity with no resistance) in mercury, cooled by expensive and rare liquid helium to below the critical temperature (Tc) of 4.2 K (Kelvin). During the next 75 years, applications were developed, such as powerful magnets built of superconducting materials for medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), high energy accelators like the proposed Superconducting Supercollider (SSC), and very senstive magnetic field detectors called Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs). Because of the expense and inconvenience of liquid helium refrigeration, however, other applications of the phenomenon were not considered economically feasible.
In April 1986, two researchers at IBM in Switzerland, K. Alex Muller and George Bednorz, detected superconductivity in (La-Ba)2CuO4 with a Tc up to 35 K, in contrast to the previous record of 23 K for which they were subsequently awwarded the Nobel Prize. By the end of 1986, superconductivity research achieved revolutionary advances with the effort of Paul C. W. Chu and colleagues at the University of Houston. Signs of superconductivity above 77 K were repeatedly observed in poorly-characterized samples during the period, strongly affirming the belief in the existence of superconductivity in the liquid-nitrogen temperature range. The scientific world knew that the textbooks had to be rewritten after January 1987, when the Houston group in collaboration with M. K. Wu, Chu's former student, achieved stable and reproducible superconductivity above 90 K in Y1Ba2Cu3O7-d (Y123), with Tc close to 100 K. Superconductivity at such high temperatures defies our common understanding of solids.
In addition to the savings in cost resulting from the displacement of liquid helium by liquid nitrogen for cooling, it is now apparent that superconductivity applications with more inexpensive refrigerants -- or eventually no refrigerant at all -- are possible. The race for new superconductors with higher Tc continues. Bismuth and thallium superconducting systems were discovered in 1988 which superconduct at 110 K and 125 K, respectively. The mercury-based compounds were discovered in 1993, with temperatures up to 164 K under pressure, another world record set at Houston. Many laboratories throughout the world have reported glimpses of superconductivity at much higher temperatures but these have not yet been confirmed.
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http://www.mkt-intl.com/superconductor/htsc.pdf Key Applications for MarkeTech HTSC leads
· MRI Magnet Systems
· Superconducting Magnetic Separators
· High Energy Particle Accelerators
· SMES Systems
· Large Superconducting Magnet Systems
· Superconducting Generators and Motors
For nearly any application where high currents are being conducted from a region of 77°K to colder regions, MarkeTech leads can reduce coolant costs. Superconducting magnet systems requiring current from 100 to more than 1000 amps can benefit from the significantly reduced helium consumption provided by our HTSC leads.
MarkeTech can help you design a complete current lead system to accommodate your design and performance requirements for low temperature superconducting applications.
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Now, a few years later, it is so perfected that they have magnetic levitation railroads using high temperatre superconducting magnet technology, and the Japanese just set a world speed record (383 mph I believe)with theirs.
Now technology has advanced enough that they apparently can use a linear accellerator and eletrons in a much cheaper, and more technologically advanced accellerator.
SERVE NO WINE BEFORE ITS TIME - (except if you you are on a government boondoggle project spending someone else's money).