Measurements of Neutrons Created in a Staged Z-Pinch With Krypton Liner and Deuterium Target at a 1-MA Pulsed Power Generator

Ruskov, Emil; Rahman, Hafiz U.; Conti, Fabio; Valenzuela, Julio; Aybar, Nicholas; Beg, Farhat N.

Measurements of Neutrons Created in a Staged Z-Pinch With Krypton Liner and Deuterium Target at a 1-MA Pulsed Power Generator

Date

2023

Authors

Abstract

Gas-puff fast Z-pinches are of considerable interest as a neutron source that can be operated in a repeatable mode and which may lead to a magneto-inertial fusion energy source. In our experiments on the 1-MA pulsed power generator Zebra a krypton gas shell was imploded to compress a central deuterium gas column. An external axial magnetic field B-z = 0.5 - 3.0 kG was used to stabilize the pinch against magneto Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. A consistent neutron yield of (0.83 +/- 0.19) x 10(10) was measured with a silver activation detector with B-z >= 0.5 kG. The neutron emission isotropy was assessed with three neutron time of flight (nTOF) detectors.

Keywords

Neutrons, Detectors, Silver, Plasmas, Isotopes, X-rays, Krypton, Fusion energy, gas puff Z-pinch, high energy density plasma, plasma diagnostics, plasma neutron sources, scintillators