Status of the SSC superconducting magnet program

The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) is a proposed proton-proton collider designated to achieve collisions with 20 TeV per beam. In the SSC, protons are accelerated and stored in two storage rings that are stacked one on top of the other in an underground tunnel 83 km in circumference. In each collider ring the protons are kept in a roughly elliptical orbit by two types of magnets: dipoles, which bend the proton orbit into a closed loop, and quadrupoles, which deflect the protons back toward the central orbit when they diverge from it. Both types of magnets use high-current superconducting coils to meet the SSC design requirements. A dipole field of 6.6 T was chosen as a compromise between the need for the highest practical field and the limits of superconducting technology. The author reviews the work done on the SSC dipole. Topics discussed are cable development and production, cryostat design, cold mass design, and model magnet testing