THAT is an intimidating warning sign. Even more than my "Hazard of Death" sign, possibly. Bob Pease had some interesting ideas and cautions about high value resistors, but not nearly that high of values.
I had never considered what it would take to measure or monitor the voltage on those super high voltage transmission lines. That could be an interesting presentation.

 

Great info and suggestions from all of you! I appreciate it.

To be more clear about MY specific application (which these banana jacks are not a part of, just was a good example of a bare conductor with a "max voltage" rating.) I am performing qualification tests on a multitude of very high value resistors (in the range of 10G to 4.5T) which require varying lengths of tests (24-2000hrs) at voltages up to 100kVDC. Anywhere between femtoamps to ~10mA for current. (Typically I have the current limit on the supplies set to around 5mA unless more is needed.)

As far as the "controlled voltage environment", the HV supply output cable is stripped down to bare wire at the end and connected with a heavy duty crimp ring terminal to a bolt mounted in a PP basket. Both the source and return cables are attached to this basket. Inside the basket, I have simple silicone test lead wire (1000VDC) with alligator clips on both ends to connect the resistor under test to the bolts the power supply cables are attached to. This basket rests on top of a large PP tank full of FR3 oil. Once the resistor(s) are connected to the wires, the basket is lowered into the tank and ALL bare metal surfaces are fully submerged in the oil. Only then is power slowly ramped up to 100kVDC.

To me this constitutes a "Controlled voltage environment" as long as I keep up with replacing the oil and re-checking the crimped connections on the HV cables. Also, I am the only person that is allowed to enter this room at all, with the exception of a couple engineers trained as my back-up. So I'm not too worried about any general employee coming into contact with these set-ups, as they would have had to ignore all the "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. HAZARDOUS VOLTAGES PRESENT" signs on the door.

I just wanted to make sure that these connectors wouldn't exhibit some unexpected behavior due to seeing 100x their rated voltage. (like becoming brittle and breaking).

Pretty cool and while most of my career involved test and measurement other than some high potential breakdown testing very little of my work involved high, high, voltages like 100 KV. I really enjoyed developing test methods and procedures. Glad you will come away from here with a few things anyway.

Ron

 

I use safety light towers, warning signs and sometimes fence/tape off an area to prevent execs and idiots from snooping around high voltage test fixtures.
Also, cleaning staff/janitors are other people that can be sweeping/vaccuming and they can be immigrants who don't read English signs, frequently bring their kids along etc. so for overnight operation make sure the area is off limits in all ways.
In other shops, I put up a safety light curtain to shut off power if people walk too close to the test gear.