Toroidal high temperature superconducting coils for ISTTOK

High temperature superconductors (HTS) are very attractive to be used in fusion devices mainly due to lower operations costs. The HTS technology has reached a point where the construction of toroidal field coils for a tokamak is possible. The feasibility of a tokamak operating with HTS is extremely relevant and ISTTOK is the ideal candidate for a meaningful test due to its small size (and consequently lower cost) and the possibility to operate in a steady-state inductive regime. In this paper, a conceptual study of the ISTTOK upgrade to a superconducting device is presented, along with the relevant boundary conditions to achieve a permanent toroidal field with HTS. It is shown that the actual state of the art in HTS allows the design of a toroidal field coil capable of generating the appropriate field on plasma axis while respecting the structural specification of the machine.