System requirements for the Los Alamos foil-implosion project
The goal of the Los Alamos imploding foil project is the development of an intense source of soft x rays and hot plasma produced from the thermalization of 1 to 10 MJ of plasma kinetic energy. The source will be used for material studies and fusion experiments. Specifically, thin, current-carrying cylindrical metallic plasmas are imploded via their self-magnetic forces. Features of this project are the use of high-explosive-driven flux-compression generators as the prime power source to achieve very high energies and fast opening switches to shorten the electrical pulses. To reach a load kinetic energy of 10 MJ, it is expected that the foil-plasma must carry about 50 MA of current and must implode in less than 1/2 ..mu..sec. This imposes the requirements that switch opening times must be less than 1/2 ..mu..sec and the transmission line must withstand voltages of about 1 MV. The system being pursued at Los Alamos is described, and model calculations are presented.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 6074119
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-83-1609; CONF-830606-13; ON: DE83014164
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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