UCI staged Z-pinch

Summary form only given, as follows. The UCI Staged Z-Pinch experiment is being assembled to study laboratory-scale thermonuclear fusion. The load configuration consists of an imploding-liner plasma that collapses onto a coaxial, hydrogenic-fiber target. The pulsed-power driver is a low-inductance, capacitor bank with the following design characteristics: 50 microFd, 50 kV, 50 kJ, 1.9 microsec risetime, and 2 MA into a short-circuit; the hardware has also been designed to run with a coaxial, or planar, plasma-opening switch. Diagnostics include conventional X-ray imaging and spectroscopy and a nanosecond, multi-frame, nitrogen-laser system. The target fiber would be solid hydrogen or deuterium, cryogenically extruded through an orifice of 10-100 microns diameter. Initially, current flows through the outer liner and ultimately implodes on-axis, due to self-magnetic pressure. Near peak compression the current transfers to the fiber on a time scale estimated to be of the order of a few nano-seconds. Such rapid transfer of energy leads to a rapid increase in the fiber-internal energy, attaining conditions favorable for thermonuclear ignition. The implosion dynamics for this coupled system is evaluated theoretically on the basis of both flux compression and magnetic penetration models which include adiabatic, Ohmic, alpha-particle heating and radiation losses. Theoretical analysis and computer modeling suggests that fusion breakeven is possible at several MA current. The authors present their most recent results for this new configuration.