Operation experience with a 3-coil arrangement of the ''TESPE'' superconducting torus

A symmetric 3-coil arrangement of the TESPE superconducting 6-coil torus was successfully operated. The bath-cooled coils reached their design current in the first run. Investigations were performed on cooling, strain effects, safety discharge and conductor stability. Cooldown until stable operation could be achieved within 100 hours. The measured strains partially agree well with calculated data. Fast energy removal had an efficiency of about 90 %. The stability behaviour varied strongly with the operating current. In these first runs the system showed also its suitability for magnet safety investigations