Sandia Z Accelerator - The Z Machine

Hello Fellow ATSers,

I've searched high and low for any previous posts that contained similar information that I'm about to present about the Z machine,
the forums reference some info but not much in any detail, I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere.


What is the Z Machine?

The Z machine is based on fusion and physics that can produce more raw power than the worlds current power production,
can create temperatures hotter than the sun and potentially be mankind’s next energy source.

To understand the basics of this technology, let's briefly overview FUSION.

What is fusion?

Technically, "fusion" is short for "Nuclear Fusion," which describes the class of reactions where two light nuclei fuse together,
forming a heavier nucleus. This heavier nucleus is frequently unstable, and sometimes splits (fissions) into two or more fragments.
Fusion also refers to the type of energy produced, and a "fusion reactor" describes an energy-producing facility which generates
power via reactors aimed at harnessing fusion for clean, safe, and hopefully inexpensive energy production.
source



Fusion info


So basically using insane amounts of energy we smash some nuclei together and produce inexpensive, breathtakingly powerful, clean energy.

And the Z machine would seem to be headed in that direction.

The Sandia Z Accelerator

Run by Researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories Located in ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. since about 1980.

Other than a nuclear bomb, Z is the most powerful generator of X-rays on the planet. It's central mechanism, called a Z-pinch, fuses isotopes of hydrogen to create nuclear fusion.

36 Marx generators are set in a ring like a metallic Stonehenge.
The 20 Rexolite disks of the vacuum chamber look like flying saucers.
Its vast, concentric pool of five-weight oil and deionized water seems bottomless - real oil and real water,
in half-million-gallon tanks that sit one inside the other like a wheel within a wheel.
Even now, there are depths in the Machine, invisible worlds revealing themselves, the secret body of the universe floating up. Deuterium, tritium, helium.
source - excellent read





Z relies upon wall-current electricity to charge giant capacitor banks and upon enormous metal cables that connect to a central vacuum chamber, 10 feet in diameter and 20 feet high.

When the accelerator fires, powerful electrical pulses are delivered by 36 transmission cables protected by insulation techniques developed over the last 30 years.

Highly synchronized laser-triggered switches allow the stored energy to be discharged simultaneously through the 36 cables, each as big around as a horse and 30 feet long, arranged like spokes of a wheel and insulated by water.

The enormous electrical pulse of 50 trillion watts strikes a complex target about the size of a spool of thread.

(The machine is named Z because the current passing directly into the target travels vertically -- a direction conventionally labeled "z" by mathematicians and physicists to distinguish it from the x and y directions, both horizontal.)




Electrical discharges illuminate the surface of the Z machine
Download 300dpi JPEG, 1.7Mb



SUPER STRINGER: Technician uses tweezers to build an array of wires, each 1/10 the diameter of a human hair,
that form a target about the size of a spool of thread
Download 150dpi JPEG, 928K



The Sandia Z machine has been developed since 1980 or so and other projects seem to have existed prior to this,
(big accelerators called stellarators, spheromaks, and tokamaks use huge magnets to contain and compress hydrogen isotopes - another form of fusion)
and will continue to be researched and developed.

At the moment seems development of the Z-machine is evolving into the X-1 project: If funded, X-1 would be expected to reach initial operating capability by about 2007 and high-yield fusion by about 2010.
source


So to conclude, what does it do?

- Tool to study fusion
- Able to Predict Nuclear Blast Physics
- Generates temperatures hotter than the sun
- Creates insane amounts of radiation - excellent for testing

what could it do:
- Possibility of producing infinite cheap energy
- Weapon development
- space-travel possibilities (propulsion methods)
- time/space distortion*


info & sources
Experimental Physics Using the Z Accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories
Great Z-machine article
Z accelerator info
2004 Z machine article
Fusion info



* ref: Titor - although Titor is a fascinating read I can't say I believe the story, the only reason I bring it up is because the Z machine is referenced in the Titor tale, i.e.:

03/13/2001 08:46 am (about time travel) 602
((�but how did you manage to overcome the problem of gathering sufficient power to artificially create a micro-singularity in such a short time (sometime prior to 2036))
The �machine� with the energy to do it will come on-line very soon. The �method� for doing it has already been �mostly� perfected in the Z machine at the National lab in New Mexico.

source


That’s it my friends I leave you maybe a bit more knowledgeable and hope this was as interesting to you as it was to me.


Please feel free to comment or correct

peace






[edit on 9-5-2005 by quadricle]

I wish all members posted with such quality.

The only problem I see is this...

Originally posted by quadricle
So basically using insane amounts of energy we smash some nuclei together and produce inexpensive, breathtakingly powerful, clean energy.

It's the same problem with all fusion reactions. You have to put in more energy than you get out.

However, I do see the benefits of such research since the solution will not present itself unless we look for it.
.

It's the same problem with all fusion reactions. You have to put in more energy than you get out.

However, I do see the benefits of such research since the solution will not present itself unless we look for it.

Gools, I believe it is deceptive to say that about ALL fusion reactions as this is not the case. I think you mean "all human-produced fusion reactions."

Originally posted by quadricle
what could it do:
- Possibility of producing infinite cheap energy
- space-travel possibilities (propulsion methods)

Not bloody likely. The wires through which the enormous current pulse is led are evaporated in the process, which produces the x-rays to compress the target. This is a hence a destructive method for one firing only and cannot possibly be used for continuous energy production. This is a matter of simple physics and not one that technology can overcome. Like you said, it is however a great tool to study fusion, nuclear blast physics and other thermonuclear/plasma processes.