Atlas current connection tests performed on Pegasus II

Atlas is a 23 MJ pulsed-power facility presently in the design and construction phase at Los Alamos. Atlas will be capable of delivering a damped sinusoidal current pulse with a peak current of 27-32 MA at 4 /spl mu/s. In the center of the Atlas machine, the current converges radially to a load through the powerflow channel which is a flat and conical transmission line. The current connections to the power flow channel are at a radius of approximately one-meter, where the maximum linear current density will be of the order of 51 kA/cm. The Pegasus II facility at Los Alamos has been used to provide peak currents of 5 MA in 6 /spl mu/s to test various types of current connections applicable to the connections for the Atlas powerflow channel. A total of 32 current connections, scaled to produce current densities and actions similar to Atlas conditions, were tested. Since the powerflow channel will be replaced after each shot, most of the connections were tested under single shot conditions.