Shiva Star - Marauder Compact Torus System

TheMARAUDER (Magnetically Accelerated Rings to Achieve Ultrahigh Directed Energy and Radiation) System is composed of multiple banks currently being used to form and accelerate a compact torus. The system consists of four banks: gas valve bank; slow magnetic field bank; torus formation gun bank; and accelerator bank. The accelerator bank is the SHIVA Star 9.5 MJ capacitor bank modified to operate with a reduced number of modules, a precautionary requirement for the initial testing of the acceleration phase of a compact torus. The normal 36 modules and six arms of SHIVN Star have been reduced to operation of three arms and a choice of either one or two modules per arm as acceleration banks. The four forward modules of the three arms can be used as a system crowbar on the accelerator bank with the addition of a buss shorting clamp on each module. Operation of the SHIVA Star capacitor bank in this modified mode allows for lower energy operation (550 kJ and 100 kV) with the flexibility of adding additional modules as experiment energy requirements increase. This approach permits relatively non-destructive testing of the load at suitable energies. Initial test results are discussed, relative primarily to bank performance during MARAUDER acceleration tests with SHIVA Star in the reduced energy mode.