Operation of triggerable gas diverters on SYRINX/GSI water transmission line

SYRINX/GSI is a 640 kJ installation that has been created at CEG in order to test advanced pulsed power technologies. Four fast Marxes charge a 110 ns, 0.135 Ohm Water Transmission Line (WTL) in /spl sim/700 ns to /spl sim/600 kV, downstream the WTL locates the 110 nH vacuum inductive storage, and the POS. During tests in full configuration it was found that the WTL can be damaged due to breakdowns in water as the reversal voltage in WTL exceeds /spl sim/350 kV. The report presents the design and the operation of the triggerable gas diverters that were developed at HCEI and installed on SYRINX/GSI to protect the WTL from reversal voltage.