COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY PROJECT TITLE: RESONANT EXCITATION AND MULTISTAGE AMPLIFICATION OF ELECTRON PLASMA WAVES IN HIGH ENERGY DENSITY PLASMAS NNSA STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES • MAINTAIN THE SAFETY, SECURITY, AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE NATION’S NUCLEAR DETERRENT WITHOUT UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE TESTING • STRENGTHEN KEY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING CAPABILITIES AND MODERNIZE THE NATIONAL SECURITY INFRASTRUCTURE HIGH ENERGY DENSITY LABORATORY PLASMAS PROGRAM OBJECTIVES • SUPPORT THE U.S. SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY BY FUNDING RESEARCH PROJECTS AT UNIVERSITIES THAT CONDUCT FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH THAT IS OF RELEVANCE TO STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP. • PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE AND COLLABORATION BY PROMOTING SCIENTIFIC INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY AND SCIENTISTS AT THE DOE/NNSA LABORATORIES • DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN A LONG-TERM RECRUITING PIPELINE TO THE DOE/NNSA LABORATORIES BY INCREASING THE VISIBILITY OF THE DOE/NNSA SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES TO U.S. ACADEMIC COMMUNITIES BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY TEAM WILL CARRY OUT DENSE Z-PINCH EXPERIMENTS USING THE 400 KA XP PULSED POWER EXPERIMENTS BY PASSING THE CURRENT THROUGH A SHORT LENGTH OF WIRE THAT FIRST RESISTIVELY EXPLODES THE WIRE, AND THEN IMPLODES IT TO VERY HIGH DENSITY AND CAUSES IT TO PRODUCE A VERY SHORT (<0.1 NS) X-RAY BURST FROM A ~ 1 ΜM SOURCE CALLED A MICRO-PINCH. DIAGNOSTIC INSTRUMENTS WILL INCLUDE CRYSTAL SPECTROGRAPHS, X-RAY STREAK CAMERAS AND OTHER ELECTRICAL AND X-RAY DEVICES. THEY WILL CARRY OUT COMPUTER SIMULATIONS AND DETAILED ATOMIC PHYSICS CALCULATIONS TO ENABLE UNDERSTANDING OF THE X-RAY SPECTRA THAT ARE OBTAINED.