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In 1980, Los Alamos formed the 'Megajoule Committee' with the expressed goal of developing a one Megajoule plasma radiation source. The ensuing research and development has given rise to a wide variety of high explosive pulsed power accomplishments, and there is a continuous stream of work that continues to the present. A variety of flux compression generators (FCGs or generators) have been designed and tested, and a number of pulse shortening schemes have been investigated. Supporting computational tools have been developed in parallel with experiments. No fewer that six unique systems have been developed and used for experiments. This paper attempts to pull together the technical details, achievements, and wisdom amassed during the intervening thirty years, and notes how we would push for increased performance in the future.
Research on topics requiring high magnetic fields and high currents have been pursued using high explosive pulsed power (HEPP) techniques since the 1950s at Los Alamos National Laboratory. We have developed many sophisticated HEPr systems through the years, and most of them depend on technology available from the nuclear weapons program. Through the 1980s and 1990s, our budgets would sustain parallel efforts in zpinch research using both HEPr and capacitor banks. In recent years, many changes have occurred that are driven by concerns such as safety, security, and environment, as well as reduced budgets and downsizing of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) complex due to the end of the cold war era. In this paper, we review the teclmiques developed to date, and adaptations that are driven by changes in budgets and our changing complex. One new Ranchero-based solid liner z-pinch experimental design is also presented. Explosives that are cast to shape instead of being machined, and initiation systems that depend on arrays of slapper detonators are important new tools. Some materials that are seen as hazardous to the environment are avoided in designs. The process continues to allow a wide range of research however, and there are few, if any, experiments that we have done in the past that could not be perform today. The HErr firing facility at Los Alamos continues to have a 2000 lb. high explosive limit, and our 2.4 MJ capacitor bank remains a mainstay of the effort. Modem diagnostic and data analysis capabilities allow fewer personnel to achieve better results, and in the broad sense we continue to have a robust capability.
A modern firing complex has been constructed for the dedicated development and application of explosive pulsed power (i.e., flux compression generators). The complex consists of three underground and interconnected buildings. The buildings, which employ several types of structural design, are engineered for above ground, open air detonations involving up to 1000 kg (TNT-equivalent) of high explosive. The explosive rating is necessary for the production of electrical pulses with energy content of hundreds of megajoules. 4 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs.
Established as a top-secret site for development of the atomic bomb as part of World War II's Manhattan Project, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has, from its very beginnings, hosted some of the world's most brilliant scientists. Many of them were recipients of the internationally famous award for scientific accomplishment, the Nobel Prize. In Nobel Laureates of Los Alamos: The Manhattan Project Era, Rizwan Ali, who directs the National Security Research Center at Los Alamos, and Brye Ann Steeves have, with the assistance of a talented team of writers and designers, assembled portraits of the visionary researchers whose names are indelibly engraved in the popular imagination: Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Maria Goeppert Mayer, and others. But these are not merely sketches of great intellects. Among the Nobel laureates profiled here we also find a sly practical joker, an avid fly fisherman, an inward-focused beachcomber, a spontaneous comedian, and a gifted singer. During the early years at Los Alamos--under the shroud of secrecy imposed by the dictates of the Manhattan Project--these scientists lived, labored, debated, explored the limits of human knowledge, and collectively laid the foundation for not only the development of the nuclear age, but of vast swaths of science and technology during the twentieth century. Offered in a lively, visually rich and easy-to-read presentation, this book provides a three-dimensional recollection of some of the most important scientific pioneers of the modern age.
In 1993, the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA, PL 103-62) was enacted. GPRA, which applies to all federal programs, has three components: strategic plans, annual performance plans, and metrics to show how well annual plans are being followed. As part of meeting the GRPA requirement in FY2000, a 14-member external peer review panel (the Garwin Committee) was convened on May 17-19, 2000 to review Sandia National Laboratories' Pulsed Power Programs as a component of the Performance Appraisal Process negotiated with the Department of Energy (DOE). The scope of the review included activities in inertial confinement fission (ICF), weapon physics, development of radiation sources for weapons effects simulation, x-ray radiography, basic research in high energy density physics (HEDP), and pulsed power technology research and development. In his charge to the committee, Jeffrey Quintenz, Director of Pulsed Power Sciences (1600) asked that the review be based on four criteria (1) quality of science, technology, and engineering, (2) programmatic performance, management, and planning, (3) relevance to national needs and agency missions, and (4) performance in the operation and construction of major research facilities. In addition, specific programmatic questions were posed by the director and by the DOE-Defense Programs (DP). The accompanying report, produced as a SAND document, is the report of the committee's findings.