AN EXPLOSIVE GENERATOR-POWERED theta-PINCH.
Los Alamos Scientific Lab., N. Mex. Indiana Univ., Bloomington. Dept. of Physics (US), D. Thomson, Robert S. Caird, K. Ewing, C. Fowler, W. Garn, J. Crawford, R. A. Damerow · 1967
d r i v e n g e n e r a t o r h a s been used t o create neutron-producing plasma i n a conventional . .8-pinch c o i l .A spiral-wound, f l u x ~c o m p r e s s i o n d e v i c e , loaded w i t h 5 l b s ." . of e x p l o s i v e , w a s used w i t h !an exploding-wire h i g h -v o l t a g e switch t o produce a crowbarred c u r r e n t of 2.6 MA i n a 15 nanohenry 8-pinch .c o i l .The rise t i m e w a s 2.5 bsec , and t h e peak rate 3 M ~/ ~s e c .T h i s c u r r e n t produced 114 kG i n t h e 8-pinch c o i l (25.5 cm long x 6.6 c m I.D.) .F i v e plasma s h o t s have been f i r e d , each u s i n g a 40 kA l i n e a r d i s c h a r g e p r e i o n i z e r , a 1 .7 kG r e v e r s e f i e l d , and 85 microns o f deuterium i n a preconditioned d i s c h a r g e t u b e .Malfunctions o c c u r r e d on two s h o t s , and t h e o t h e r s produced neutron y i e l d s bf 2 x lo3 , 2 x'104, and 5 x la5.The y i e l d r a t e peaked 'one Usec b e f o r e maximum f i e l d , w i t h a one psec h a l f w i d t h , suggesting t y p i c a l s h o r t c o i l i o s s e s .T h e .r e s u l t s a l s o show t h a t e f f i c i e n t high-voltage switching i s e s s e n t i a l t o neutron produc-.t i o n .Experiments are now i n p r c g r e s s t o u s e t h i s sw2tching .technique and a 5 MA g e n e r a t o r t o produce 150 kG i n a 35 cm long c o i l w i t h similar plasma i n j t i a l c o n d i t i o n s .