Review of the procyon explosive pulsed power system

Abstract

The Procyon explosive pulsed power system is designed for powering plasma z-pinch experiments. It begins with a helical explosive-driven magnetic flux compression generator (MCG) for amplifying seed current from a capacitor bank into a storage inductor. One conductor element of the storage inductor is an explosively formed fuse (EFF) opening switch tailored to divert current to a plasma flow switch (PFS) in less than 3 [mu]s. The PFS, in turn, delivers current to a z-pinch load. Experiments to date have concentrated on the explosive pulsed power components and PFS. This paper focuses on the results of a recent full energy MCG/EFF/PFS test.