Editorial Overview of Issue 10

October 19, 2009 (E10).  This special issue contains mainly selected preprints of papers submitted to Proceedings of the 2009 CEC/ICMC Conference (in Advances in Cryogenic Engineering and Advances in Cryogenic Engineering Materials), which was held in Tucson, Arizona, USA, from June 28 to July 2, 2009.  This very limited selection (of less than 10% of papers submitted) is opened by the plenary CEC paper by L. Serio on cryogenic challenges for ITER.  Other CEC papers are devoted mainly to cryocoolers and accelerator components and systems.  The ICMC papers are devoted to bulk cuprates, MgB2 wires, their processing, microstructural characterization and optimization of critical current carrying capabilities. The HTS coated conductors are also represented.  Furthermore, load experiments and electromechanical properties of LTS conductors and cables are discussed.  This is the first time we prepublish CEC/ICMC papers, and are especially glad that we can offer a selection of papers on recent progress in cryocoolers, a topic thus far hardly covered by ESNF.

In addition to CEC/ICMC preprints, the issue Regional News Section features an invited overview of recent activities at the International Superconductivity Technology Center’s (ISTEC, Japan) Superconducting Research Laboratory (SRL), authored by S. Hasuo.  It provides also an authoritative update on the structure of the recently reorganized ISTEC.  Finally a regular paper by A. Usoskin et al., report on HTS coated conductors developed for the European Super3C transmission cable project.