We have now obtained US Department of Commerce permission to import the cylindrical beryllium billets we will need for our next set of electrodes. The beryllium electrodes will be needed in later stages of our experi-mental program, as the x-ray flux from our plasmoid becomes too intense for the tungsten electrodes. Beryllium is far more transparent to x-rays and the x-rays that are absorbed will be spread out harmlessly in the bulk of the material.
With the import permission in hand, we expect to get the billets from Kazakhstan by the end of summer and have the machined electrodes by the end of 2015.
