CPRD is one of the elements within the USMDP Program Structure supporting scientific foundational research, along with Facility Improvements and Area III: Supporting Technologies. It operates in the form of an advisory committee, receives OHEP funding at LBNL, and executes purchases and contracts to support the USMDP partners.
Our mission is to explore, advance, and ultimately define the conductor performance boundary that limits the performance of superconducting accelerator magnets. Because conductor development occurs several years upstream in the magnet fabrication chain, our efforts must remain forward-looking and informed by input from magnet designers. We position ourselves to be in close partnership with the USMDP working groups and also be well connected to the international community and the industry suppliers in a way that will strengthen US leadership in conductor development for high-field accelerator magnet technology.
CPRD Roles and Responsibilities
The procurement responsibility of CPRD is to supply the USMDP with production-quality conductors for the cables required for experimental magnets. The research and development responsibility of CPRD is to facilitate the understanding of performance limits, uniformity, reliability, scalability, and production cost of advanced conductors relevant to USMDP.
The conductors we invest in are those with technology maturity to be relevant to USMDP’s Roadmap.
CPRD activities do not include conductor procurements for non-USMDP projects, nor do they include USMDP Rutherford cabling and materials characterization activities (which are under MDP Area III: Supporting Technologies).
CPRD works closely with industry and the various working groups within USMDP to obtain input on magnet needs and to better understand the challenges related to conductor performance and production:
- We try to understand the interplay between raw material properties and conductor processing improvements
- We connect magnet and coil performances with cables and wire design boundaries
- We invest in easing supply and technology bottlenecks within the foreseeable conductor procurement timeline, and build inventory
Our goal in the near term is to ensure the magnet programs are not limited by conductor availability. The long-term goal is to ensure the magnet programs are not limited by conductor performance.
Throughout, we strive to maintain a carefully balanced portfolio across the different conductor technologies.
Contacting CPRD
Please email the CPRD managers at usmdp_cprd+managers@lbl.gov. Activity proposals are welcome!
Suggested CPRD Acknowledgment Statement
In publications and presentations of work supported or facilitated by CPRD, in whole or in part, please acknowledge the role we played. This helps demonstrate the impact of CPRD’s role in science to its funding agency and helps raise the visibility of the USMDP-CPRD conductors, encouraging broader applications.
A suggested acknowledgement statement is as follows: “This research used conductors supplied by the USMDP-CPRD, procured at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231).”
