Getting seriously down to the topic of electrode erosion, here…
if i remember correctly, as of today it’s measured in the microns per pinch. Obviously this wont do for production. But the electrodes in use, today, are copper, rather than beryllium, which absorbs more xrays.
Are they also not as aggressively cooled as planned?

Cu
m.p. = 1357.77 K
heat capacity = 24.440 J·mol−1·K−1
thermal conductivity = 401 W·m−1·K−1
electrical resistivity = 16.78 nΩ·m

Be
m.p. = 1560 K
heat capacity = 16.443 J·mol−1·K−1
thermal conductivity = 200 W·m−1·K−1
electrical resistivity = 36 nΩ·m

What’s gained in higher melting point by using beryllium could be lost via increased electrical resistance, lower heat capacity, and lower thermal conductivity. On the other hand, with pulse timing in nanoseconds, the skin effect comes into play, as well. The beryllium should have a deeper skin depth (~9..90 μm through the pulse, as opposed to ~6..60 μm for copper).

Even so, unless a thin coating of something like tantalum-hafnium-carbide (m.p. 4488 K) can totally eliminate erosion, i’m not seeing an easy way to keep down xray absorption. Will it?