Deuterium gas-puff Z-pinch implosions on the Z accelerator
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)
- Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)
- Blackett Laboratories, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BZ (United Kingdom)
- Ktech Corporation, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123 (United States)
- Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 (United States)
- L-3 Communications/Pulse Sciences, San Leandro, California 94577 (United States)
Experiments on the Z accelerator with deuterium gas-puff implosions have produced up to 3.7x10{sup 13} ({+-}20%) neutrons at 2.34 MeV ({+-}0.10 MeV). Although the mechanism for generating these neutrons was not definitively identified, this neutron output is 100 times more than previously observed from neutron-producing experiments at Z. Dopant gases in the deuterium (argon and chlorine) were used to study implosion characteristics and stagnated plasma conditions through x-ray yield measurements and spectroscopy. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) calculations have suggested that the dopants improved the neutron output through better plasma compression, which has been studied in experiments increasing the dopant fraction. Scaling these experiments, and additional MHD calculations, suggest that {approx}5x10{sup 14} deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutrons could be generated at the 26-MA refurbished Z facility.
- OSTI ID:
- 20975067
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 14; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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