Chapter 516 Not Just Thirty Minutes

Shangjing City.

In the CTV "Science Road" studio, a program about controlled nuclear fusion is going on.

"Welcome to this episode of Road to Science, I am the host Cheng Nan."

"In science fiction film and television works or literary works, we can always see descriptions of controllable nuclear fusion. And the word controllable nuclear fusion seems to condense all our fantasies about energy..."

"The theme of this program is the future energy source that fascinates us - controllable nuclear fusion."

"For this reason, we specially invited the director and chief engineer of the Huaguo International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Executive Center, academician Zhou Chengfu of the Southwest Institute of Physics, to explain to us the past and present of controllable nuclear fusion... Everyone welcome!"

Clap clap——!

Led by the host, the audience at the scene gave warm applause.

Walking from the backstage of the studio to the front of the stage, the gray-haired Zhou Chengfu nodded to the audience with a smile on his face, and then sat on the sofa at the invitation of the host.

These days, he was in Beijing for a meeting, and happened to be invited by the column team of "The Road to Science". Since he wasn't very busy recently, he came over and walked around.

Although scientists are different from actors and do not need such things as exposure rate, it is also necessary for researchers like them who are engaged in future disciplines to accept interviews appropriately.

After all, after spending so much money, they have to let the public know what they have done and what their research results can change.

"The audience present may have heard that just a few months ago, the stellarator STAR device located in Jinling City successfully completed the ignition experiment. Including this stellarator, including the magnetically confined HT Including tokamak devices such as -7 and EAST, as well as the inertial confinement Shenguang, and the recently proposed anti-field pinch, our country's scientific researchers have almost taken over all the technical routes of controllable nuclear fusion research. at the forefront of the world.”

"Before the STAR device, the research on stellarator in our country was almost blank. I would like to ask Academician Zhou, what do you think of the first stellarator device in this country?"

Hearing this question, Zhou Chengfu smiled, and said modestly: "It is an exaggeration to say that it is ignition. After all, tritium is very expensive. Before solving the two problems of tritium retention and plasma irradiation damage to the first wall material, we generally It’s all about experimenting with hydrogen.”

Moderator: "Do you know about the STAR device?"

Zhou Chengfu smiled lightly: "I don't know much about it, but I still understand it."

Host: "Then can you tell us about the characteristics of this STAR device?"

Hearing this question, the corners of Zhou Chengfu's mouth curled up, and he spoke.

"In terms of features, as you said, it is probably the first real stellarator in China."

"As for its prototype, you may not have heard of it, but I can tell you that it is actually a German WEGA device. This device was probably decommissioned in 2013 and has been stored in Frankfurt, Germany since then. Later, Professor Lu When I went to Germany to study, I probably just fell in love with it, so I lobbied in the two countries and spent 500 million euros in research funding to buy it from the Germans."

The host showed a surprised expression on his face: "500 million euros? That would be nearly 4 billion in RMB... Is the research on controlled nuclear fusion so expensive?"

The audience also showed surprised expressions.

4 billion!

Poverty limits their imagination.

Zhou Chengfu smiled, but he didn't feel much about the number he said.

"It depends on what you compare it with. Compared with studying mathematics, it must be a lot more expensive, but compared with space stations and hadron colliders, it is still slightly cheaper."

Of course, it is hard to say exactly how much this point is.

Host: "Then do you think the STAR device after Nirvana rebirth can replicate the 30-minute miracle created by Helix 7-X?"

Seemingly dissatisfied with the word Nirvana rebirth, Zhou Chengfu frowned subconsciously, but soon realized that this was in the program, so his brows relaxed in an instant.

"30 minutes?" Shaking his head with a smile, Zhou Chengfu said calmly, "It's not easy to run continuously for two minutes."

The host looked at Zhou Chengfu in surprise, and continued to ask: "Don't you like this STAR device?"

Hearing this question, Zhou Chengfu talked eloquently: "It's not a question of whether I don't like it or not. The reason why the Helix 7-X can complete the long-term plasma confinement for 30 minutes is mainly due to its special external field coil design. , and the most critical water-cooled divertor.”

"Although this water-cooled divertor is also on the WEGA device, it is more than 20 years ago. It is still far behind the one currently serving on the spiral stone. If the STAR stellarator intends to copy the spiral stone 7 For -X to be successful, he had to at least innovate in the cooling system, but obviously he didn't."

This is not his nonsense, the success of the spiral stone in the 30-minute long-term restraint is mainly due to the credit of the water-cooled divertor, at least that is what the Germans claimed.

And the newly designed water-cooled divertor will naturally not appear on the WEGA device.

What's more, even if you don't look at these factors, it has been almost two months since the scientific review article came out, and there has been no movement at the STAR Stellarator Institute until now.

Now Zhou Chengfu can basically be sure that it's not that Lu Zhou doesn't want to refute him with facts, but that the STAR device can't do it at all.

It was precisely because of this that when he said this, he felt no pressure.

"...At present, the mainstream of international controllable fusion research is still the tokamak, and then there is the inertial confinement of laser ignition, and the anti-field pinch you just mentioned."

"In theory, every technical route is feasible, as long as we solve the various problems we face on this route, as well as the problems we will face soon, the final destination is the fusion we are pursuing. Energy. Just like pickup trucks and cars, both have four wheels, as long as they pass through the toll booth, they can go on the highway.”

Amused by this vivid metaphor, the audience smiled knowingly.

After a pause, Zhou Chengfu continued.

"The stellarator is too difficult in engineering. In contrast, the design of the tokamak is simpler, and the difficulty of engineering is relatively low."

"We don't need to try every technical route. Instead of trying every possibility, we should concentrate our limited resources on the most likely directions."

"Compared to random attempts without any rules, this is the pragmatic choice!"

...

After the interview, recalling the applause in the studio before, Zhou Chengfu left the studio relaxed, feeling indescribably happy.

Although speaking on this kind of popular science program does not have much substantive effect, but thinking of the young man who doesn't care about him, he feels relieved.

At this moment, the phone in his pocket rang suddenly.

He took out the phone and saw that it was Jia Liangcai calling, so he pressed the connect button and put the phone to his ear.

"Hey?"

"Zhou, Director Zhou!"

"What's the matter?" Hearing the panicked voice, Zhou Chengfu frowned.

"It's the STAR Institute!"

Zhou Chengfu said impatiently: "You tell me what happened to the STAR Institute."

"Just yesterday, they restarted the experiment!"

Hearing this sentence, Zhou Chengchengfu's heart tightened, and he hurriedly asked.

"They restarted the experiment? Why haven't I heard any news? Tell me, what's the result of his experiment? Have you done it for thirty minutes?"

Hearing the barrage of questions, Jia Liangcai had a bitter smile on his face.

"Isn't it thirty minutes..."

Hearing that it wasn't thirty minutes, Zhou Chengfu heaved a sigh of relief.

However, his breath was not half relieved, and he was destined not to be relieved.

Jia Liangcai on the other end of the phone continued to speak in a bitter and unbelievable tone.

"...I read the report in Jinling Daily, they seem to have made the magnetic confinement time an hour..."