PPPS-2013: Abstract submission national security research in plasma physics and pulsed power: Past, present, and future

Abstract

Summary form only given. The NRL Plasma Physics Division was established in 1966 to create x-ray simulators for testing nuclear weapons effects (NWE) on materials and components of military hardware, to study the physics and effects of High Altitude Nuclear Explosions (HANE), and to perform nuclear fusion research. These missions are pursued today, utilizing decades of advances in pulsed power, intense beams, and high-power lasers; in the late 1960's, pulsed power physics was an emerging tool. A similar story existed at AWE where pulsed power was used for radiography. Sandia, Los Alamos, and Livermore all expanded their R&D into, and use of, pulsed power for a diverse set of missions including radiography, dynamic materials, nuclear weapons effects testing, and fusion. These early days had rudimentary computational models, were largely single module machines, and had a limited ability to synchronize and pulse shape. The Cold War, catalyzed by the 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”), saw a rapid growth of pulsed power technology in pursuit of directed energy weapons and x-ray lasers driven by intense charged particle beams or lasers. ICF programs also grew in impact and importance. The cessation of nuclear testing in 1992 created an increased need for “above ground testing” (AGT). This included e.panded needs for radiography, nuclear weapons effects simulators, and ICF facilities for studying HED physics and achieving thermonuclear burn in the laboratory. The premier systems of today's stockpile stewardship program (NIF, Z, Omega, and DAHRT) are powerful and energetic with sophisticated synchronization and pulse shaping capabilities. However, they are large, costly, and single-shot. The 2011 Naval Directed Energy Steering Group Charter and the 2012 Naval S&T Strategic Plan can give us glimpses of the future, at least for the DoD, with greater emphasis on hypervelocity railguns, directed energy, detection and neutralization of WMD, autonomous systems, and the ability to retain access in contested environments, especially space. They also call for technologies that decrease the dependence on fossil fuels and shorten logistic chains. The future increasingly calls for creating compact, efficient, repetitive sources of prime pulsed power, compact accelerators, railguns, directed energy systems, and related capabilities. These themes also run through the 2011 DOE Report “Accelerators for America's Future”. Together, we'll look into our crystal balls at the challenges and opportunities for future plasma physics and pulsed power research.