Future Explosive Pulse-power Technology for High-energy Plasma Physics Experiments

Book excerpt: A variety of high-performance pulse-power systems in the 10 to 20-MJ class have been built in the last ten years or are planned in the next 3--5 years. Such systems, using capacitive energy storage, are employed in particle beam fusion, x-ray effects, x-ray physics, and plasma physics experiments. Advances in the technology of high-energy- density capacitors over the same time period has substantially decreased the cost per joule of the basic capacitor and kept the total parts count in large systems within reason. Overall, the savings in capacitor costs has about balanced the generally increasing system costs keeping the total cost of large, high-performance systems at $1--2 per joule over the period. The next step, to 100-MJ class systems, will profit from the improvements of the last decade, but there seems little reason to project a lowering of the cost per joule. In contrast, there is every reason to expect the continuously growing system costs to outstrip any savings to be realized from improvements in capacitor technology. Over the same period, explosive pulse power systems in the 10 to 20-MJ class have been employed, routinely, in plasma physics experiments. These one- shot systems currently cost about $100 K for the generator and switching and deliver energy to a plasma physics experiment in a few microseconds. Comparing only hardware costs, such systems are competitive with capacitor systems for developmental activities involving 100--200 shots -- but not for repetitive applications involving 1000's of shots. At this rate, explosive systems are competitive systems for applications involving up to 200--500 shots. In this paper, we discuss general concepts for generators and power-conditioning systems appropriate for high-energy applications. We scope two such applications and show how explosive pulse power can address those applications. And we describe one example of an explosively powered generator suitable for 100-MJ operation.