4. Magnets for specific applications

MRI and NMR spectroscopy are the only two truly industrial outlets for superconductivity, as several hundred products are sold each year. High-energy physics is practically a market in terms of volume (LHC: 250,000 km of NbTi strands, 1,232 dipoles and 400 main quadrupoles), but limited in time. Controlled thermonuclear fusion could create a real market, but industrial reactors are not yet on the horizon. Superconducting coils for research up to 20 T are a niche market, covered by a few small companies.

In this section, some applications requiring superconducting magnets are presented. SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage) will be presented at