Summary of the 9th International Conference on Dense Z-Pinches
August 2014
CER hosted a very successful 9th International Conference on Dense Z-Pinches in Napa, CA in August. The meeting was held at the Westin Verasa Napa hotel, and was attended by 90 researchers and students from 8 countries. The conference was co-Chaired by CER Assistant Research Scientist Simon Bott-Suzuki.
The technical program embraced a wide range of topics, including fundamental investigations of liner, gas-fill and wire-based Z-pinch systems, along their application in the fusion and the broader high energy density physics field. A major focus was the significant volume of recent work on the present pulsed power fusion design using a magnetized liner (MagLIF) led by Sandia Laboratories. It was also notable that the dense plasma focus is presently receiving renewed interest both as a magnetized plasma source and a possible particle accelerator. A dedicated invited session also saw representatives from the US, China and the Russian Federation present the status of large scale, high current driver designs supported by their respective governmental programs. These may lead to the first fusion-scale devices for the z-pinch approach. Exciting progress also continues in numerical modeling techniques, radiation sources, laboratory astrophysics and diagnostic development. Proceedings from the conference will be published in the American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings early in 2015.
The meeting was supported by the U.S Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, Sandia National Laboratories, Cornell University and Alameda Applied Sciences Corporation.
