IEC 61788-14:2010 provides general requirements for characteristic tests of conventional as well as superconducting current leads to be used for powering superconducting equipment. Current leads are indispensable components of superconducting devices in practical uses such as MRI diagnostic equipment, NMR spectrometers, single crystal growth devices, SMES, particle accelerators such as Tevatron, HERA, RHIC and LHC, experimental test instruments for nuclear fusion reactors, such as ToreSupra, TRIAM, LHD, EAST, KSTAR, W7-X, JT-60SA and ITER, etc., and of advanced superconducting devices in the near future in practical uses such as magnetic levitated trains, superconducting fault current limiters, superconducting transformers, etc. The major functions of current leads are to power high currents into superconducting devices and to minimize the overall heat load, including heat leakage from room temperature to cryogenic temperature and Joule heating through current leads. For this purpose, current leads are dramatically effective for lowering the overall heat load to use the high temperature superconducting component as a part of the current leads.

Key words: superconductivity, TC90