Intermagnetics General Wins Contract
to Supply $800,000 in Superconducting Wire for Major
Fusion Power Project in Korea
Company Sees Potential for Significantly Larger Order as 'KSTAR' Program
Advances
LATHAM, N.Y., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Intermagnetics General Corporation (Amex: IMG -
news) today announced that its wire manufacturing division, IGC Advanced Superconductors, has
been awarded an $800,000 order to supply more than one ton of semi-finished superconducting rod
to Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology. The rod, to be delivered about April 1999, will be
drawn down to final wire size and cabled in Korea by industrial participants for use in a major
Korean fusion reactor project.
The project, KSTAR (Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research), will use the
superconducting wire and cable in the initial phase of construction of the fusion reactor. The next
phase of the project, commencing in fall 1999, will require another six tons of the Niobium-tin
(Nb3Sn) superconducting material. The overall project is expected to require 25 tons of material.
''Winning this order from Samsung is an important milestone because it is one of the few
high-volume business opportunities currently available for this type of superconductor and because
we prevailed over formidable international competition,'' said Glenn H. Epstein president and COO
of Intermagnetics. ''We believe that our reputation for having developed the highest-performance
Niobium-tin superconducting wire to-date for this application, as well as a cost-effective
manufacturing technique, were key factors in our winning this order, while placing us in an excellent
position for future orders.
''Prior to this order from KSTAR,'' Epstein added, ''IGC-AS had already been a key supplier of
Niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). That project
is currently on hold, and KSTAR is currently the only active fusion reactor project in the world.''
Fusion power, the energy source of the sun and stars, has the potential to be an abundant and
environmentally attractive form of energy. Fusion reactions, when achieved and contained by strong
magnetic fields -- for which superconducting wire is required -- in a controlled manner are very
efficient, releasing millions of times more energy for a given mass than fossil fuels.
Intermagnetics is the largest integrated developer and manufacturer in the United States of
low-temperature and high-temperature superconducting magnets, wire and cable as well as
associated low-temperature refrigeration equipment, and radio-frequency (RF) coils, the
combination of which is essential to successful application of superconductivity such as Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (MRI). The Company is dedicated to the development and commercialization of
applied superconductivity and refrigeration systems to the medical and electric power equipment
industries among others. The Company also supplies materials inspection systems, materials
separation equipment and FRIGC® refrigerants as replacements for ozone-depleting refrigerants. |
