Superconducting properties and low cost make magnesium diboride attractive for a variety of applications. For those applications, MgB powder is compressed with silver metal (or 316 stainless steel) into wire and sometimes tape via the Powder-in-tube process.
In 2006 a 0.5 tesla open MRI superconducting magnet system was built using 18 km of MgB wires. This MRI used a closed-loop cryocooler, without requiring externally supplied cryogenic liquids for cooling.
"...the next generation MRI instruments must be made of MgB coils instead of NbTi coils, operating in the 20–25 K range without liquid helium for cooling. ...
Besides the magnet applications MgB conductors have potential uses in superconducting transformers, rotors and transmission cables at temperatures of around 25 K, at fields of 1 T."
A project at CERN to make MgB cables has resulted in superconducting test cables able to carry 20,000 amperes for extremely high current distribution applications, such as the high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider.
The IGNITOR tokamak design was based on MgB for its poloidal coils.
Thin coatings can be used in superconducting radio frequency cavities to minimize energy loss and reduce the inefficiency of liquid helium cooled niobium cavities.
Because of the low cost of its constituent elements, MgB has promise for use in superconducting low to medium field magnets, electric motors and generators, fault current limiters and current leads.