Conceptual design of the China Z-pinch fusion facility

The China Z-pinch Fusion Facility (CZFF) was designed as a next-generation high-energy-density physics platform to demonstrate thermonuclear ignition and advance the Z-pinch-driven fusion–fission hybrid reactor program. Its primary pulsed power source was based on the linear transformer driver (LTD) technology, comprising 72 LTD modules arranged in parallel. Each LTD module consisted of 50 series-connected LTD cavities. Each LTD cavity was powered by 30 basic bricks, each of which consisted of two 110 nF/100 kV capacitors and a gas spark switch. The facility incorporated water-insulated transmission lines with variable-impedance profiles, a six-level vacuum insulation stack assembly, and a magnetically insulated transmission line system that transmitted and combined the currents produced by the primary pulsed power source for delivery to the physics load. The CZFF was designed to generate a peak current over 50 MA with a 10–90% rise time of ~130 ns, which we expect to produce ~10 MJ of X-ray radiation, deuterium–tritium fusion neutron yields exceeding 10¹⁸, and hohlraum temperatures above 300 eV. For the dynamic material property experiments, the driver supportes quasi-isentropic loading pressures greater than 1 TPa, shock loading pressures greater than 2 TPa, and flyer plate launch velocities greater than 50 km/s, enabling frontier research in materials science and laboratory astrophysics under extreme conditions.