Review of high energy density physics driven by advanced pulsed-power systems

Pulsed power accelerators compress electrical energy in space and time to provide versatile experimental platforms for high energy density and inertial confinement fusion science. The 80-TW “Z” pulsed power facility at Sandia National Laboratories is the largest pulsed power device in the world today. Z discharges up to 22 MJ of energy stored in its capacitor banks into a current pulse that rises in 100 ns and peaks at a current as high as 30 MA in mm-scale targets. Considerable progress has been made over the last decade in the use of pulsed power as a precision scientific tool and for achieving extremely high-energy-density conditions. This talk reviews fundamental science research at Sandia in inertial confinement fusion, dynamic high-pressure material science, intense x-ray radiation science, and pulsed power technology.  I will conclude with a few remarks on a Next Generation Pulsed Power project that the U.S. government is considering at this time.