Attainment of Gigavolt Potentials by Fluid Dynamic Suppression of the Stepped Leader its Significance for Thermonuclear Ignition

It is proposed to levitate a conducting sphere in a high pressure Taylor flow and to charge it up to gigavolt potentials, either mechanically as in a Van de Graaff electrostatic generator, or inductively by a rising magnetic field. If the Taylor flow is sufficiently fast, it should overcome the electric pressure and breakdown by stepped leader formation, leading to the maximum attainable voltage by the Paschen law. Discharging the electrostatically stored energy can be done by controlled breakdown. With gigajoule energies stored and released in about 10^-8 sec, this implies and electric pulse power of the order 10^17 Watt, opening the prospect of large driver energies for thermonuclear ignition.