Chapter 539 No Obvious Radiation Damage!

Huaguo, Jinling.

STAR Device Research Institute.

"This is coming in?"

Following Lu Zhou through the gate of the research institute, Hou Jinli looked around curiously.

Although it has been more than half a year since he came to Jinling from the University of Science and Technology, and the project is somewhat related to the STAR stellarator, this is his first time here.

Before that, he had only heard some rumors about this research institute at most.

For example, the military region in this area is currently responsible for the security of this research institute.

For another example, maps such as Baidu and Gaode cannot navigate here.

However, when he came in today to take a look, he found that the situation here was completely opposite to what he had imagined...

The security here doesn't seem to be as tight as expected?

Lu Zhou smiled: "Otherwise?"

Hou Jinli embarrassedly scratched the back of his head.

"I thought the secrecy measures would be tighter."

At least it's like the subway security check, take a metal bar and sweep it twice on the body or something.

"The security department in the institute is a member of the army. You can rest assured in terms of safety. Unrelated personnel can't get close to it. As for the secrecy measures... If you can see it, then it's not a secret," Lu said. Zhou raised his chin towards the side of the road, "See there?"

"where?"

Subconsciously looked towards where Lu Zhou pointed, but Hou Jinli saw nothing except a knee-high green belt.

"...what's there?"

Lu Zhou: "There's a camera hidden there, you can't see it."

Hou Jinli was stunned: "Then how did you see it?"

Lu Zhou: "I have seen the surveillance video."

Hou Jinli: "..."

From a place two streets away to here, the monitoring along the way basically has no dead ends.

Not only that, on the basis of manual review, it is also matched with face recognition and big data analysis. If a non-native resident hangs around the area for a long time, without even going near the Institute, someone will go over and talk to him.

And this level of security measures is only recently.

After all, Huaguo's situation in the ITER organization is getting more and more delicate, and the interest shown by the United States in controllable fusion technology makes people believe that they may have some crooked ideas and try to obtain relevant information from places other than the negotiating table. data of.

In any case, be careful.

And these things don't need Lu Zhou to worry about.

Naturally, someone will do it for him where he can't see it.

Leading Hou Jinli through the gate at the entrance of the tunnel, the two went straight to the laboratory embedded in the mountain.

When the two arrived, the researchers in the laboratory were basically all present.

After a month of maintenance, the STAR device has been restored to its best condition.

Although the word best may have to be put in quotation marks, after all, the swelling of the structural material cannot be completely eliminated, but with the experience of the previous trial ignition, as long as the fuel injection dosage is controlled this time, the problem should not be serious.

Take ten thousand steps back, even if there is an accident...

That's worth it too!

Although the internal neutron irradiation environments of stellarators and tokamaks are similar, there are still subtle differences. Except for the illusory honor of "witnessing history", this is the reason why he chose the STAR device instead of EAST or other tokamak devices for experiments.

Seeing Lu Zhou appearing at the door of the laboratory, Sheng Xianfu, who was in charge of the on-site command, immediately walked over and reported the situation to him.

"All the preparatory work has been completed and the experiment can be started at any time."

Lu Zhou: "Did you put the sample in?"

Sheng Xianfu: "It has already been put in."

Lu Zhou nodded: "Then get ready to start."

Sheng Xianfu: "Yes!"

No superfluous exchanges.

After receiving the order, Sheng Xianfu immediately returned to work.

Hou Jinli took a deep breath, looking at the experiment that was about to start, his whole body was so nervous that he almost trembled.

40 billion scientific research project, he has never participated in such a major project.

If the device fails, will he be held accountable? If the LPC-1 material doesn't work, or if they missed a peak in the XRD detection of the sample, the experiment will be in vain...

Even though these things were impossible, they still made him very upset.

After all, he had never thought about these issues before stepping into this laboratory.

Looking at Lu Zhou's back, Hou Jinli fell into deep thought.

If I felt the weight just by standing here, then what kind of pressure is Professor Lu bearing?

I always feel terrible just thinking about it...

Looking at the busy staff in the laboratory behind the floor-to-ceiling windows, Academician Pan standing next to Lu Zhou frowned, with a worried look in his eyes.

"Are we really going to use the STAR device for this experiment?"

"This is the best choice," Lu Zhou nodded and said expressionlessly, "If the LPC-1 material proves to be effective, I will immediately start the establishment of a demonstration reactor."

"Is the liquid lithium neutron recovery system solved?" Academician Pan glanced at Lu Zhou unexpectedly, "There is also a magnetic fluid generator set. These two issues are very important, right?"

Lu Zhou: "It is completely feasible to solve it while constructing it. At least compared with neutron radiation resistant materials, these two problems are not the key difficulties."

Academician Pan: "I don't know why you are so anxious, but there are still five or six years before 2025. It is important to seek speed while maintaining stability, but no matter what, stability is still the top priority... Remember not to act too hastily."

"Well," Lu Zhou nodded, "I see."

Academician Pan shook his head.

He knew that Lu Zhou didn't listen to his suggestion, and the phrase "I see" was probably just a polite perfunctory. Perhaps because of his habit of fighting alone, this person is really too assertive in his research.

However, he has no choice but to believe now.

After all, I have been far away from the front-line research work for too long, and only the prestige of the so-called pioneer is left in this field.

It's fine to help out with the side drums outside of research, and sometimes Lu Zhou can help make up for the lack of tact in dealing with other research institutes.

But in the specific experiment... I really can't give any advice.

Sighing, Academician Pan looked at the giant steel beast behind the floor-to-ceiling windows.

All he can do now is pray.

...

More than twenty samples were installed in the reflection chamber.

This time there was no camera to record everything, let alone interviews by reporters.

Because Lu Zhou specifically mentioned a sentence to the city government when reporting, the key content of this experiment involving fusion research is not suitable for publicity.

Fortunately, he mentioned such a sentence.

Or the municipal party committee really planned to send reporters over to do publicity for him.

Taking a deep breath, Sheng Xianfu looked at his watch.

After receiving Lu Zhou's gaze, he ordered in a deep voice.

"Start the experiment!"

Almost at the same time as his words fell, liquid helium began to inject the SG-1 superconducting magnet, soaking the circles of graphene wires surrounding the outer orbit of the stellarator.

As the resistivity of the external field coil dropped sharply, a huge current began to pass through the coil, and with the assistance of the control coil, a perfectly closed magnetic field was formed along the orbit of the stellarator.

Confirmed from the computer that the magnetic field is in good condition, Sheng Xianfu continued to order a big one.

"Inject fuel!"

1 mg of a deuterium-tritium mixture was injected into the interior of the reaction chamber from the catheter.

At the same time, the microwave heating device starts to heat the gas molecules in the reaction chamber.

Almost at the moment when the gas molecules were ionized into plasma, a brilliant aurora-like film was spread inside the geometrically beautiful reaction chamber track.

It looked like a fluttering cicada's wing, as if a wisp of dust could shatter it.

However, the scorching heat contained in it is enough to cut off all armor in this world.

Fortunately, it is controlled by an invisible hand...

The magnetic field that confines the plasma remains stable.

The temperature and density of the plasma continue to climb until it reaches a critical point for fusion ignition.

At this moment, everyone's fists were clenched involuntarily.

In an instant, white light flickered in the lens, and the picture became snowflake white.

At this moment, in the orbit of the stellarator, the most terrifying energy on this planet is brewing.

Although this process only lasted less than three seconds...

"Turn off the microwave heating device!"

With the heating device cut off, the heat is continuously exported by the divertor, and the fusion reaction stops abruptly.

After waiting for the device to cool down, staff wearing protective clothing quickly entered the reaction chamber and took out precious samples from it.

These samples will be sent to a special testing room to test their DPA value, He residue and other attributes.

At the same time, the staff responsible for overhauling the equipment also rushed into the equipment and began to assess the damage of structural materials, first wall materials, divertors and other components.

Looking at the samples being sent to the testing room, Hou Jinli followed along and assisted the researchers of the STAR Institute to complete the testing.

In less than an hour, the test results came out.

The moment the report was brought to the laboratory, almost everyone surrounded it no matter whether they could understand it or not.

The hand holding the report was trembling, Hou Jinli glanced at Lu Zhou, then at the researchers who had never met at the scene, and trembled excitedly: "... The neutron beam basically passes through the material, and the interstitial atoms basically pass through the material. Backfill the grid at the origin! All the data show that the material has excellent resistance to neutron irradiation in the high-energy region, and there is no obvious radiation damage!"

Sheng Xianfu held his breath.

Academician Pan opened his eyes wide.

All the people present were moved and happy.

The neutron beam basically passes through!

No obvious radiation damage!

Hearing this sentence too, a smile appeared on the corner of Lu Zhou's mouth.

This is probably the best news he has heard this year!