Purpose: In the effort to develop a compact dielectric wall accelerator (DWA) system for proton radiotherapy, this work aims to demonstrate the feasibility of a drift step recovery diode (DSRD) based pulse forming network (PFN) to generate high magnitude, nanosecond scale voltage pulses at high repetition rates. Methods: An initial numerical feasibility study was conducted in order to demonstrate the possibility of generating a 17 kV, nanosecond scale pulse with a DSRD-based standard PFN (forward and reverse current branch). Then, a DSRD-based PFN was designed using a magnetic switch, seen in [Figure 1][1] (https://bit.ly/3iMCOHs). Saturation of a transformer discharges a storage capacitor. At maximum current, the DSRD turns off, commuting stored energy to a load. A low energy prototype was developed at SLAC. A 20 kV, high repetition rate (1-10 kHz) prototype is currently being developed. Results: The numerical study demonstrated that a max output of 16505 V with a rise time of 1.11 ns can be generated with a stack of 19 DSRDs. [Figure 2][2] (https://bit.ly/3VGPuhS) presents a 4.9 kV pulse of the low energy prototype. [1]: https://bit.ly/3iMCOHs [2]: https://bit.ly/3VGPuhS