The LNCMI on its Toulouse site has designed and uses 5 pulsed generators made up of capacitor banks which can be charged at voltages up to 24 kV. They store an electrical energy of 1 to 14 megajoules and all allow the delivery of currents of several tens of thousands of amperes corresponding to an electrical power of the order of a gigawatt
3D view of one of the two 3 MJ generators during its design…
… and its construction. Each one of the three subparts contains one element of the generator (switch, crowbar, dump resistors).
Second generation of 14 MJ capacitor bank. Subparts developed for the 3 MJ generators have been duplicated to rationalize construction, maintain and automation. In the same room there is a 1 MJ generator based on the same techniques.
Transportable 1 MJ generator (the three cubes on the left) here in use at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble. This generator is used at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble for experiments combining X-rays and intense pulsed magnetic field. Until 2019 it was used to energize multi-coils magnets.
Switch room. High voltage/high current contactors distribute three generators in the 7 measurement sites of the laboratory.
Measurement site. The coil is cooled down to 77 K (-196 °C) in a liquid nitrogen Dewar installed in a pit. The cell is reinforced to resist in case of violent coil failure.