The risk of a superconducting cable exploding

[jeffinbath]

TL;DR

If the goal of achieving a room temperature superconducting cable were to fully succeed , would there not always be an explosion risk?

In a future supposed “room temperature” superconducting cable that is carrying a large current (I ), would there not always be a risk of explosion if part of the cable accidentally reached a higher critical temperature so that this part suddenly developed a resistance (R) and all the power would heat the cable following the I2 R law?

 

[phyzguy]

This is the case for all superconducting cables, not just room temperature superconductors. Superconducting cables, using both low temperature superconductors like Nb-Ti and high temperature copper oxide based superconductors are a reality today. For the reasons you stated, these always have a copper conductor in parallel with the superconductor to carry the current if the superconductor gets "quenched". You can see that in this diagram of a HTSC cable.