FANTM: First Article NIF Test Module

Abstract

Designing and developing the 1.7 to 2.I-MJ Power' Conditioning System (PCS), that will power the flashlamps of the main and power amplifiers for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) lasers, is one of several responsibilities assumed by Sandia National Labs (SNL) in support of the NIF Project.Maxwell Physics International has been a partner in this process. The NIF is currently being constructed at Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL). The test facility that has evolved over the last three years to satis& the project requirements is called FANTM, for the Fkst Ardcle NE Test Module. It was built at SNL and operated for about 17,000 shots to demonstrate component performance expectations over the lifetime of ND?. A few modules similar to the one shown in Fig. 1 will be used initially in the amplifier test phase of the project. The final full NIF system will require at least 192 of them in four capacitor bays. This paper briefly summarizes the final design of the FANTM facility and compares its performance with the predictions of circuit simulations for both normal operation and fault-mode response. Applying both the measured and modeled power pulse waveforms as input to a physics-based, semi-empirical amplifier gain code indicates that the 20-capacitor PCS can satisfy the NIF requirement for an average gain coefficient of 5.00 %/cm and can exceed 5.20 Ye/cmwith 24 capacitors. I. FANTM PULSED POWER DESIGN 'The FANTM bank consists of 20 (24 max) 86-kJ, nominally 300+.F capacitors that &e operated in parallel near 24 kV. Each capacitor (C in Fig. 1) is isolated from ' the rest of the bank by a current-limiting damping element (D), which is a 25-mQ, 9-pH resistive coil. They connect to a single bus (B) that feeds the gas switch (S). The single ST300A air-insulated switch transfers over 500-kA peak current in a 300+.s FWHM critically damped pulse from the bank into 20 parallel output lines. Each of these

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