Power conditioning systems for high peak and average power, high repetition rate discharge excited lasers involve operation of modulator components in unconventional regimes. Reliable operation of switches and energy storage elements under high voltage and high di/dt conditions is a pacing item for laser development at the present time. To test and evaluate these components a Modulator Component Test Facility (MCTF) was constructed. The MCTF consists of a command charge system, energy storage capacitors, thyratron switch with inverse thyratron protection, and a resistive load. The modulator has initially been operated at voltages up to 60 kV at 600 Hz. Voltage, current, and calorimetric diagnostics are provided for major modulator components. Measurements of thyratron characteristics under high di/dt operation are presented. Commutation energy loss and di/dt have been measured as functions of the tube hydrogen pressure.

Nova is a 200 terawatt, 10-beam High Energy Glass Laser currently under construction at LLNL. This facility, designed to demonstrate the feasibility of laser driven inertial confinement fusion, contains over 5000 elements requiring coordinated control, data acquisition, and analysis functions. The large amounts of data that will be generated must be maintained over the life of the facility. Often the most useful but inaccessible data is that related to time dependent events associated with, for example, operator actions or experiment activity. We have developed an Event Logging System to synchronously record, maintain, and analyze, in part, this data. We see the system as being particularly useful to the physics and engineering staffs of medium and large facilities in that it is entirely separate from experimental apparatus and control devices. The design criteria, implementation, use, and benefits of such a system will be discussed.