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Lab: Naval Research Laboratory
Category: Energy Technologies
4556 Overlook Avenue S.W.
Washington, DC, 20375
Phone: 202-767-3083 ext.
Fax: 202-404-7920 |
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Contact Lab About This Facility |
FUNCTION: Produces high-voltage (3
MV), high-current (> 1 MA), short (< 100
ns) pulses of energy of either positive or
negative polarity. These terawatt power
level pulses are used for many Navy,
DoD, and DoE programs including
nuclear weapons effects simulation, ion
beam production studies for inertial
confinement fusion, particle beam production
and focusing for directed-energy
weapons, and dense Z-pinch production
for X-ray laser research. The device also
serves as a test bed for advanced pulsed
power research on opening switches.
DESCRIPTION: The facility’s 300-kJ Marx generator is
a large capacitor bank capable of producing several
megavolt voltages. The voltage pulse is then compressed
in time duration through a succession of water
dielectric pulse-forming lines separated by closing
switches to eventually arrive as a high-power pulse
across a vacuum diode. This pulse can be applied
directly across a load (such as a gas column or wire)
or can be used to produce powerful electron or ion
beams. These high-power beams are then allowed to
interact with X-ray converters or to propagate to a
variety of targets. The facility is surrounded by thick
concrete shielding to contain X rays produced as a
result of the high-power pulses. |
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