Re: Surface Arcing Photo

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Bert Hickman by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
>Original poster: "Mike by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><megavolts61-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
>Desktop background of the week... Sandia's ZMachine
>Fusion Research
>Facility.
>Wow!  nice pic.  It sure wasn't what I'd have expected
>to see from what I read about the Z Machine. From what
>I read, they explode tungsten wires(much like many
>from the list can do) to create a shock wave 'wall' of
>plasma to crush the tritium/deuterium fuel pellets to
>initiate a fusion reaction.  Perhaps this picture is
>taken right when the device is fired and before the
>'wall' develops.
>Mike
>
>.

Mike,

Actually, this display is "left over" energy (~5%), and it occurs AFTER the 
really big 100 nSec 2.5 million volt "Magilla" pulse has come and gone. 
Deionized water is used briefly as a high permittivity (k~80) dielectric 
for temporary energy storage and it helps reduce the characteristic 
impedance for the transmission lines that carry the 20 million amp pulse to 
the experiment chamber in the center. After it's done its job as a special 
purpose insulator, the water harmlessly breaks down, discharging any 
residual system energy. It makes quite an impressive bleeder resistor, eh?

Best regards,

-- Bert --
-- 
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