RADIATION ENVIRONMENTS PRODUCED BY PLASMA Z-PINCH STAGNATION ON CENTRAL TARGETS

A goal of pulsed-power technology is the development of an intense, me gajoule level source of soft x rays for use in high-energy density phy sics experiments. Experimental facilities, theoretical concepts, compu tational tools, and diagnostics that have been developed since 1980 pl ace pulsed power at the threshold of performing experiments of great i nterest to the applied physics community. In this paper the ''Flying R adiation Case'' approach will be presented and its predicted performan ce on Sandia National Laboratory's Z-Machine [M. K. Matzen, Phys. Plas mas 4, 1519 (1997)] will be described. The effects of instability grow th in the plasma during the implosion, its reassembly on a central cus hion, and the plasma interactions with shaped electrodes are considere d. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.