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First 100-Meter-Long Superconducting Tape Debuts in China
China has produced its firstbi-base superconducting tape longer than 100 meters, which will bring revolutionary changes to the country's energy industry, the Beijing Non-Ferrous Metal Research Institute announced November 26.
The development signifies that the country's research and development program in superconducting materials has developed into industrial use, said Yuan Guansen, a researcher with the institute.
"The new technology will dramatically reduce losses in electricity transmission from 20 percent to almost nothing," he said.
In July 1998, the institute produced its first one-meter-long bi-base 1000 ampere superconducting tape. The new tape is 116 meters long, 3.6 mm wide, 0.28 mm thick and meets advanced international standards.
According to Yuan, if the length of superconductive tape exceeds 100 meters, it can be put into industrial use, for electricity transmission cables, electricity voltage transformers and MRI technologies.
The United States, Japan and European countries are leading the research and development of superconductive materials, but China is catching up fast, Yuan said.
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