$1m Kiwi magnet attracts buyer

KENT BLECHYNDEN/Dominion Post

MILLION DOLLAR MAGNET: Industrial Research has sold one of its Wellington-built $1 million superconductor, capable of producing powerful magnetic forces, to an Australian science organisation.

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A $1 million superconductor with powerful magnetic forces has been designed and built in Wellington and sold to Australia.

The machine was designed and built by a team of 15 specialised electrical and thermal engineers at crown research institute Industrial Research and offshoot company HTS-110 in Lower Hutt.

Professor Jeff Tallon said the conductor - which has 12 kilometres of superconducting wire and runs at -250 degrees celsius - can study the magnetic properties of materials of high magnetic fields.

It took 18 months to build and design and generates 50,000 times Earth's magnetic field.

The superconductor would have an impact on many sectors including health, communications, energy, defence and transport, Mr Tallon said. "It can be applied to all sorts of things - for example, the magnetic reading of a hard drive in a computer. It's come out of years of research.

"With this technology you can make anything you might want out of copper wires - generators, motors and transformers," Mr Tallon said.

The superconductor was bought by Ansto - Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation - and will be sent there next week.

Production manager Simon Gibson said the conductor generates huge forces. An area of five metres has to be cleared of all objects just to be able to test it, he said.

"It's very small and very powerful," Mr Gibson said.

"If you come too near it, your credit cards, cellphone or camera, everything will be wiped."

- © Fairfax NZ News