Two-terawatt Zebra Z-pinch at the Nevada terawatt facility

A high-repetition-rate, 2-TW Z-pinch (Zebra or HDZP-II from LANL: 2 MV, 1.2 MA, 100 ns, 200 kJ, 1.9 ohm) has been assembled to investigate the early-time evolution of a current-driven wire, the plasma turbulence around and between wires, the acceleration of a plasma current sheet by a magnetic field, and the suppression or reduction of plasma instabilities, and to generate radiation for applications. The heating, expansion, and dynamics of wires driven by current prepulses similar to those at SNL-Z is being examined in isolated wires and soon in SNL-Z wire arrays. 290 trillion watts of X-rays can now be generated by a few cubic millimeters of plasma. The source of this plasma is the Z-pinch. This plasma confinement device drives a giant current through a tiny load, compressing and heating it with extreme current-produced magnetic fields. The Z-pinch suffers from plasma instabilities that limit its performance. The ultimate performance limit of the Z-pinch is unknown: another order of magnitude increase in X-ray power levels may be possible. Such an improvement would open up new applications. Understanding the dense Z-pinch is vital to the search to ameliorate it. This article describes the activation of the 2-TW Zebra Z-pinch, the development of diagnostics, and an initial single-wire experiment.