Ballarino, A Meß, K H Taylor, T J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 012288 97 2008 2008 The year-to-year improvements in the characteristics of high temperature superconductor (HTS) materials encourage periodic reappraisal of their applicability for use in accelerators. With the successful large-scale application of HTS technology for the current leads of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, this tendency is accentuated, and the new materials are now starting to receive more serious attention as candidates for other accelerator-related applications. The medium- to long-term goal will be to use the materials for magnets, but their characteristics are totally different from those of classical multi-filamentary Nb-Ti material and the transition will be difficult. In particular it seems likely to be inappropriate to carry over the presently conventional coil geometries and conductor excitation levels. A roadmap is proposed for R&D that will lead progressively to achieving the ultimate goal through consolidation of the necessary technology via intermediate steps, and progressive accumulation of successful applications. Willering, G P Verweij, A ten Kate, H H J J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 012119 97 2008 2008 Sufficient thermal-electromagnetic stability against external heat sources is an essential design criterion for superconducting Rutherford cables, especially if operated close to the critical current. Due to the complex phenomena contributing to stability such as helium cooling, inter-strand current and heat transfer, its level is difficult to quantify. In order to improve our understanding, many stability tests were performed on different cable samples, each incorporating several point-like heaters. The current redistribution around the heat front is measured after inducing a local normal zone in one strand of the cable. By using voltage taps, expansion of the normal zone is monitored in the initially quenched strand as well as in adjacent strands. An array of Hall probes positioned at the cable edge is used to scan the selffield generated by the cable by which it becomes possible to estimate the inter-strand current transfer. In this paper it is demonstrated that two different stability regimes can be distinguished depending on the local conditions for local normal zone recovery through heat and current transfer to adjacent strands. It is shown that in the first regime every normal zone will lead to a quench, while in the second regime a normal zone in one strand can recover. Combining the predictions developed using a novel version of the numerical network model CUDI and new measurement results, it is possible to derive char acteristic quench decision times as well to calculate and predict the influence of a change in cable parameters. Boutboul, T den Ouden, A Devred, A Fabbricatore, P Greco, M Leroy, D Oberli, L Pedrini, D Volpini, G J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 012211 97 2008 2008 The main purpose of Next European Dipole (NED) project is to design and to build an Nb$_{3}$Sn ~ 15 T dipole magnet. Due to budget constraints, NED is mainly focused on superconducting cable development and production. In this work, an update is given on the NED conductor development by Alstom-MSA and SMI, which uses, respectively, Internal-Tin-Diffusion and Powder-In-Tube methods, with the aim of reaching a non-copper critical current density of ~ 3000 A/mm2 at 12 T and 4.2 K. Characterization results, including critical current and magnetization data, are presented and discussed, as well, for conductors already developed by both companies for this project. SMI succeeded to produce a strand with 50 µm diameter filaments and with a critical current of ~ 1400 A at 4.2 K and 12 T, corresponding to a non-copper critical current density of ~ 2500 A/mm2. Cabling trials with this strand were successfully carried out at LBNL. March, S A Ballarino, A Beduz, C Mess, K H Yang, Y J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 012002 97 2008 2008 Conventional superconducting switches for power applications, which operate at liquid helium temperature, generally utilize Nb-Ti superconductor in a cupro-nickel matrix. For superconducting circuits based on High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) that work at higher temperatures, the associated superconducting switches must also be based on HTS. This paper addresses the issues concerning the requirements and the appropriate design of HTS switches, including approaches to fast triggering.