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PBFA‐II is on the Air at Sandia National Lab

MAY 01, 1986

DOI: 10.1063/1.2814997

Physics Today

The second‐generation light‐ion‐beam fusion accelerator at Sandia, PBFA‐II, was successfully fired for the first time in December. This $48 million machine is ultimately meant to deliver megajoules of pulsed energy—ten‐nanosecond beam pulses of 20–30‐MeV ions of lithium or other light species—to a D–T fusion pellet. The goal is to compress the pellet to a thousand times normal density, approaching the conditions for thermonuclear ignition.

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© 1986 American Institute of Physics
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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 39, Number 5

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