The Cable-In-Conduit-Conductor (CICC) for the ITER tokamak Central Solenoid (CS) has undergone design change since the first prototype conductor sample was tested in 2010. After tests showed that the performance of initial conductor samples degraded r...
The Cable-In-Conduit-Conductor (CICC) for the ITER tokamak Central Solenoid (CS) has undergone design change since the first prototype conductor sample was tested in 2010. After tests showed that the performance of initial conductor samples degraded rapidly without stabilization, an alternate design with shorter sub-cable twist pitches was tested and discovered to satisfy performance requirements, namely that the minimum current sharing temperature ($T_{cs}$) remained above a given limit under DC bias. With consistent successful performance of ITER CS conductor CICC samples using the alternate design, an attempt is made here to revisit the internal electromagnetic properties of the CICC cable design to identify any correlation with conductor performance. Results of this study suggest that there may be a simple link between the $Nb_3Sn$ CICC internal self-field and its $T_{cs}$ performance. The study also suggests that an optimization process should exist that can further improve the performance of $Nb_3Sn$ based CICC.