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The Z Pulsed Power Facility, informally known as the Z machine, is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Since its refurbishment in October 1996 it has been used primarily as an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research facility. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons and eventual nuclear fusion pulsed power plants. The Z machine is located at Sandia's main site in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ==Origins== The Z machine origins can be traced from the Department of Energy need to replicate in a lab environment the fusion reactions of a thermonuclear bomb, to better understand the physics involved. Since the 1970s the DoE had been looking into ways to generate electricity from fusion reactions, with continuous reactions such as Tokamaks or discrete fusion of small balls of light atoms. Since at the time lasers were far from having the required power, the main approach considered was heavy ion fusion. However major advances such as Q-switching and Mode-locking made lasers an option (culminating in the National Ignition Facility) and the Heavy Ion Fusion programs became more or less dormant. In 1985, the review of DoE's program by the National Academies stated "The energy crisis is dormant for the time being". Heavy Ion Fusion machines were tasked to help military research improve nuclear bombs. The first research at Sandia dates back from 1971 where Gerold Yonas initiated and directed the particle-beam fusion program. In the December 1976 issue of Popular Science and in 1976 conference proceedings published in 1977, an article titled "Particle Beam Fusion Research" described early work and first generation machines: Hydra (1972); Proto I (1975); Proto II (1977); EBFA/PBFA (Electronic Beam Fusion Accelerator/Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator) (1980). In 1985, the PBFA-II was created. Sandia continued to target Heavy Ion Fusion at a slow pace despite the National Academies report. The November 1978 issue of Scientific American carried Yonas' first general-public article, "Fusion power with particle beams". Meanwhile, defense-related research was also ongoing at Sandia with the Hermes III machine and Saturn (1987), upgraded from PBFA-I, which operated at lower total power than PBFA-II but advanced Sandia's knowledge in high voltage and high current and was therefore a useful predecessor to the Z machine. In 1996, the US Army published a report〔()〕 on the decommissioning of the Aurora Pulsed Radiation Simulator. This report is useful in understanding ties between nuclear arms testing and inertial fusion energy research. Also in 1996, the PBFA-II machine was once again upgraded into PBFA-Z〔 or simply "Z machine", described for the first time to the general public on August 1998 in Scientific American.〔() 〕〔()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Z Pulsed Power Facility」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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