Research on pinches driven by SPPED 2 generator : hard X-ray and neutron emission in plasma focus configuration

Abstract

SPEED2 is a generator based on Marx technology and was designed in the University of Dusseldorf. SPEED2 consists on 40 +/- Marx modules connected in parallel (4.1 mF equivalent Marx generator capacity, 300 kV, 4 MA in short circuit, 187 kJ, 400 ns rise time, dI/dt~1013 A/s). Currently the SPEED2 is operating at the Comision Chilena de Energia Nuclear, CCHEN, Chile, being the most powerful and energetic device for dense transient plasma in the Southern Hemisphere. Most of the previous works developed in SPEED2 at Dusseldorf were done in a plasma focus configuration for soft X-ray emission and the neutron emission from SPEED2 was not completely studied. The research program at CCHEN considers experiments in different pinch configurations (plasma focus, gas puffed plasma focus, gas embedded Z-pinch, wire arrays) at current of hundred of kiloamperes to mega-amperes, using the SPEED2 generator. The Chilean operation has begun implementing and developing diagnostics in a conventional plasma focus configuration operating in deuterium in order to characterize the neutron emission and the hard X-ray production. Silver activation counters, plastics CR39 and scintillator-photomultiplier detectors are used to characterize the neutron emission. Images of metallic plates with different thickness are obtained on commercial radiographic film, Agfa Curix ST-G2, in order to characterize an effective energy of the hard X-ray outside of the discharge .