Design and fabrication of the transport solenoid pulsers for the NDCX-II induction accelerator

The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX-II) is an induction accelerator project currently in construction at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) experiments. This accelerator requires 30 pulsers to drive the high magnetic field transport solenoids. Each solenoid requires 7 kA to provide a maximum of 2.5 T peak magnetic field on axis. A 2 mF capacitor at 4 kV is discharged through an SCR into the solenoid inductance to produce a half-sine current pulse width of 2.8 ms. The details of the pulser design and fabrication are described as well as prototype test measurements.