Bushing Test Facility: A new megavolt-class, meter-scale vacuum insulation test facility.

摘要

Construction of the Bushing Test Facility (BTF) was completed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the fall of 1989. The BTF is a new megavolt-class, meter-scale vacuum insulation test facility built to meet two primary objectives: (1) to qualify high-voltage vacuum feedthrough bushings before their installation in the electron-beam diodes of the Aurora KrF laser amplifiers and (2) to investigate fundamental issues related to surface flashover and electrical breakdown in vacuum, thereby enabling us to improve the performance and reliability of high-voltage components for future laser systems. The BTF voltage source is a low-energy (<4.4-kJ), 1-MV Marx generator whose output pulse width is variable from 100 ns to a few microseconds. The large BTF test chamber (2.1 m in diameter and 1.5 m long) allows full-sized Aurora bushings or other large-scale vacuum insulators to be tested at background pressures down to about 10(sup (minus)7) torr. This paper will further describe the facility, its experimental checkout and first bushing tests, and the plans for future vacuum insulation research. 11 refs., 5 figs.