VIRTUAL
 
Thursday, February 4th  2021
3:45 – 4:45 p.m.
WEBEX
 
Speaker:  Dr. Daniel Sinars
 
Director, Pulsed Power Sciences Center
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque
 
 
“From Astrophysics to Z:  An overview of the science done on the world's largest pulsed power machine”
 
 
 
Abstract: 
Pulsed power accelerators compress electrical energy in space and time to provide versatile experimental platforms for high energy density and inertial confinement fusion science. The 80-TW “Z” pulsed power facility at Sandia National Laboratories is the largest pulsed power device in the world today. Z discharges up to 22 MJ of energy stored in its capacitor banks into a current pulse that rises in 100 ns and peaks at a current as high as 30 MA in low-inductance cylindrical targets. Considerable progress has been made over the past 15 years in the use of pulsed power as a precision scientific tool. This talk provides an overview of developments at Sandia in inertial confinement fusion, dynamic materials science, x-ray radiation science, and pulsed power engineering. Much of this work is done in close collaboration with scientists at both Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.
 
Bio:
Dr. Daniel Sinars is the Director for the Pulsed Power Sciences Center, which is best known for conducting research on the world’s most powerful pulsed power machine, the 26 MA, 80-TW, 22 MJ “Z” facility. The Z facility is used for a wide range of high energy density physics science, the study of matter and radiation at extreme pressures (>1 million times atmospheric pressure). Daniel is also the Sandia Executive for the Inertial Confinement Fusion and Science programs of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Center manages a combined annual budget of >$110M and has over 260 employees. The Center also operates several additional facilities, including the multi-kJ, 2-TW Z-Beamlet laser facility adjacent to Z, the STAR gas gun facilities, and a variety of smaller pulsed power machines.
Daniel joined Sandia in 2001 after receiving a PhD in Applied Physics from Cornell University, and a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Oklahoma in 1996. He has made extensive contributions to inertial confinement fusion, high energy density science, and z-pinch physics research, with over 130 refereed journal publications in these fields (26 as first author). Daniel was the principal experimenter for over 160 experiments on the Sandia "Z" pulsed power facility and has also led many additional experiments on the Z-Beamlet laser and the SATURN pulsed power facility. Daniel led the development of several x-ray and spectroscopy diagnostics for the Z facility, including monochromatic x-ray backlighting, which has been the primary radiographic technique for the facility. Daniel’s contributions were recognized in 2007 with an IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Early Achievement Award, and in 2011 with both a Department of Energy Early Career Research Program Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). He was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in September 2015.