High voltage insulator improvements made in the oil and water sections of the Z machine at Sandia national laboratories in 2008

Many changes were made to the Z machine [1] oil and water sections in 2007 as part of the Z refurbishment project [2]. As Z was returned to routine operation, some components required modification to increase shot rate. This paper summarizes the oil- and water-section insulator failures encountered in 2008 along with a description of the solutions implemented.