Italian high-temperature supermagnet unveiled in the US

An Italian high-tech supermagnet arrives in the US. Lucio Rossi, project leader at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), chaired by Antonio Zoccoli, presented the results of the successful testing of the machine in question at ASC 2026 (Applied Superconductivity Conference, the world’s leading event dedicated to superconducting applications) in Pittsburgh. It is, therefore, a high-temperature superconducting magnet (HTS – high-temperature superconductors) entirely made in Italy and funded as part of a PNRR contract.

This particular type of device is characterised by the fact that it operates using less energy than traditional superconducting magnets. This could enable the fusion power stations of the future (clean nuclear power) to be more energy-efficient. The same principle applies to the medical and research sectors, which already use this equipment, as well as to potential industrial applications.

High-temperature superconducting magnets, unlike ‘traditional’ superconducting magnets, operate at less extreme temperatures: between 20 and 30 degrees Kelvin; in short, we are still talking about very cold conditions, but they are significantly lower than those required by traditional superconductors (from 2 to 4 degrees Kelvin), which have hindered their application outside the laboratory. It is precisely this characteristic that allows HTS magnets to have a simpler cooling system and, as mentioned, enables significant energy savings, reducing running and operational costs by several orders of magnitude.

Moreover, the challenge of producing magnets using HTS materials – the processing of which is highly complex and requires manufacturing processes that demand far greater care and caution than those applied to traditional superconductors – has been ongoing for years, with the United States and Asia, with Japan and China channelling substantial resources into funding research. Europe, which once held a leading position in the sector, has now fallen behind.

For this reason, the presentation at the ASC of the Italian magnet – which is made of REBCO (copper, barium and rare-earth oxide) and generates over 5 tesla and 1 megajoule – is particularly significant. The machine is the result of a collaboration, under the auspices of the PNRR, between the LASA group at the INFN in Milan and ASG Superconductors, a Ligurian company owned by the Malacalza family and specialising in superconductivity. It was built at the company’s historic factories in Genoa, on the very same site where, over the last 20 years, magnets have been produced for CERN in Geneva and for the ITER and JT-60 nuclear fusion projects, as well as for Fermilab and various international European research projects, including the experiments at the GSI (Society for Heavy Ion Research) in Germany.