Vol. 51, No. 3        February 12, 1999

Pulsed power

A record 2.1 million degree temperature suitable for driving inertial fusion capsules was achieved in a series of dynamic hohlraum experiments conducted over the past year on the Z facility. In experiments, the walls of the hohlraum were heated as they were imploded by the magnetic pressure from Zıs 20MA current. Calculations indicate that if the present experiments are scaled to 60MA, the resulting radiation pressure will be capable of driving a capsule to thermonuclear fusion yields of 600MJ. (9500)

Experiments on the 10 MA Saturn generator, combined with computer modeling, have demonstrated that wire array Z-pinch loads can be operated up to 160 ns implosion times as efficiently as at 50 ns. By increasing implosion times, the cost of larger pulsed power systems for fusion, weapons physics, and radiation effects applications can be reduced by 30 percent, and the risks in scaling are reduced. Innovative modifications to Saturn allowed the generator to be flexibly and rapidly used for joint Sandia and Defense Threat Reduction Agency experiments. (9500, 9300)

Pulsed power experiments on the Z accelerator have obtained data for the design of the 50MA ZX accelerator. The vacuum insulator has worked 40 percent higher than predicted. High current experiments at 9MA/cm have proven a new resistive loss model and show that 25 percent less energy will be required for the ZX accelerator. (9500)

Last modified: February 12, 1999

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