Chapter 420 It's Time to Give the Higher-Ups a Surprise

Mid-July.

In the United States, the modified NSTX device is running in the Princeton Plasma PPPL National Laboratory.

The establishment of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory originated from a Cold War top-secret plan to control thermonuclear reactions - the "Matterhorn Plan".

In 1961, after the Matterhorn Plan was declassified, the laboratory related to this plan was renamed the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

Here is the world's largest medium-sized spherical tokamak magnetic confinement nuclear fusion device - the NSTX nuclear fusion experimental device.

This device can simulate the high temperature and high density plasma conditions at the center of the sun and realize fusion reactions under controlled conditions.

According to the investigation of the United States, although it is not clear what Professor Xu has transformed the German ASDEX device into, some information has been obtained in general.

From the collected intelligence, the spherical NSTX device in Princeton is the fusion device closest to the Dawn Fusion Device transformed by Professor Xu in China.

Coupled with the strong mathematical ability of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and Professor Fefferman's research on the NS equation, the US Energy Corporation has invested a large amount of scientific research funds in the PPPL plasma laboratory.

Professor Charles Louis Fefferman of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and Halifax Bruce, director of the PPPL Plasma Research Institute, stood together, looking at the various data on the control screen.

Next to them, there was a middle-aged man in a suit and tie, Dan Brouillette, the president of the US Energy Corporation.

As time went on, the running NSTX device gradually stopped.

"What's the situation?"

Dan Brouillette asked impatiently as soon as the NSTX device stopped running.

Halifax Bruce shook his head and said, "Not very good, it only ran for 22 minutes, and this was done despite the damage to the first wall."

"22 minutes, why is the gap so big?" Dan Bruyette frowned and asked, "We have invested more than one billion in you, why is it not even half of the record that Professor Xu created for the first time?"

If it was two years ago, the NSTX nuclear fusion experimental device could run for 22 minutes, both the PPPL laboratory and the Energy Institute would be happy.

But now, 22 minutes is too short.

"It's very simple, because the numerical control model of superconducting materials and plasma turbulence is not perfect enough."

On the side, Fefferman shrugged and replied on behalf of Halifax Bruce: "If you are not targeting Professor Xu, with the friendship between Princeton University and him, it should be no problem to buy a batch of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials."

Thanks to Xu Chuan's efforts in the field of controlled nuclear fusion and the start of the Dawn Demonstration Reactor Project, these gentlemen in the United States finally began to worry.

Funds from Capitol Hill finally began to flow to the major controlled nuclear fusion institutions that were almost abandoned, and Princeton PPPL Plasma Laboratory was one of them.

But even so, Feferman still had a lot of complaints about these congressional gentlemen.

When Dawn achieved two hours of high-density plasma operation, he suggested to PPPL Plasma Laboratory to purchase a batch of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials for the transformation of NSTX nuclear fusion experimental device.

However, on the basis of the PPPL laboratory's agreement, Energy Treasure directly lost the materials.

Although they later purchased a batch of superconducting materials with much better performance than niobium-titanium alloy from other superconducting material manufacturers, they were still not as good as Dawn, and even not as good as German Spiralite 7X.

Although the performance of the stellarator in controlling plasma is indeed stronger than that of the tokamak-like device, the ball bed device also has its own advantages.

Across from him, Dan Bruyette frowned and said, "There's no need to talk about these things that have already happened. And it's your job to optimize the mathematical model. I don't care how you do it. I just want to know how far we are from the demonstration reactor?"

Halifax Bruce smiled bitterly and said, "No one knows this. There are too many problems to be solved between the experimental reactor and the demonstration reactor."

"The operating time of high-temperature plasma, the neutron irradiation resistance of the first wall material, tritium self-sustaining, plasma magnetic surface tearing, etc. These are all troubles."

Dan Bruyette took a deep breath and asked, "So why is China Can do it, but we can't? "

"Don't forget that two years ago, we were ahead in the field of controlled nuclear fusion. Where did you spend your time and money?"

"I need a specific time to explain to Congress and citizens!"

Halifax quickly retorted: "This is impossible. It is impossible for us to overcome so many problems in a short period of time."

"If Congress continues to invest in us, perhaps in 2025, we will have the hope of starting the construction of the demonstration reactor."

While the debate was going on in the Princeton PPPL plasma laboratory, on the other side, in Jinling, China.

Xu Chuan was in his office, waiting for the verification results from the supercomputing center, while dealing with matters related to the construction of the demonstration reactor.

After collecting the data of the liquid lithium molten salt breeding tritium system from EAST, he re-analyzed the data.

Judging from the data collected, this path is indeed correct.

After liquid lithium is mixed with materials such as silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, beryllium oxide, or silicon dioxide to form dispersed particles, a lithium molten salt material is formed.

This new type of lithium molten salt material will liquefy in a high temperature environment close to 1,500 degrees, but because it loses its metallic properties, it will not generate current, so it will not generate a magnetic field to interfere with external constraints. The magnetic field will not harm the control of plasma turbulence.

In addition, during the extraction process of tritium, hydrogen is used to replace the tritium in the liquid lithium molten salt material, and the extraction of tritium is also quite smooth.

The only problem is that there are some problems with the intelligent calculation method he designed before to improve the tritium reproduction ratio of the tritium cladding produced by the fusion reactor.

This resulted in the formation of tritium being less than originally ideal, and the utilization of neutrons not being so perfect.

However, when designing it, Xu Chuan used supercomputing and previous liquid lithium tritium self-sustaining experimental data to create a model. Imperfection is normal.

Therefore, after returning, Xu Chuan began to re-optimize the calculation method, and then asked the Mathematical Physics Model Laboratory to rebuild a model based on his optimized mathematical formula.

Now, we only need to wait for the verification results from the supercomputing center to be almost certain whether the new model can be applied to the liquid lithium molten salt breeding tritium system.

The black pen in his hand signed an acceptance report for the steam generator, and Xu Chuan opened another acceptance report.

With the construction of the Nuclear Industry Group, the Dawn Demonstration Reactor project is gradually coming to an end.

This is a super project involving more than a hundred research institutes, companies, and institutions. Even with the help of Gao Hongming, Peng Hongxi, and others, he still has to deal with a lot of things every day.

For example, signing various completed equipment acceptance reports, coordinating the work of various departments, assigning project priorities, checking the progress of research projects, etc.

At this moment, the red phone on the desk rang.

Xu Chuan casually found the phone and answered the call.

Opposite, Director Pan Yuansheng, who is responsible for managing the supercomputing center, gave a report.

"Academician Xu, the supercomputing center has completed the verification of the new model of the liquid lithium molten salt multiplication tritium system, and the results have been sent to your mailbox through the intranet."

Xu Chuan clamped the phone and quickly signed his name on another document with the signature pen in his hand while replying: "Okay, I'm sorry to bother you."

After saying that, he hung up the phone before the person on the other end could reply with a polite word.

"Let me see how it turns out."

After pushing aside the documents on his desk, Xu Chuan turned on the phone with some excitement in his eyes.

Rather than dealing with boring management tasks, he prefers to study some difficult problems.

After all, only by exploring the unknown can one make progress.

In the mailbox, an email passed from the confidential intranet was marked with a star rating. Xu Chuan clicked on it and read it carefully.

A long time passed, and his eyes sparkled.

"It turns out that by modifying the particle tracking principle and neutron-related parameters of Serpent-2, and using helium purge carrier technology, the tritium in the liquid lithium molten salt material can be transformed into a different form."

Looking at the supercomputing verification data on the screen, Xu Chuan's mouth curved slightly. He found the problem and confirmed the optimization direction of the new model.

If there are no accidents, the ignition time can be advanced much earlier!

He originally planned to launch the ignition at the end of 2021 or the first half of 2022, but now it seems that the time may be advanced by at least one or two months.

Thinking about it, he took out a stack of letter paper from the drawer.

It’s time to give the above another surprise!

PS: Second update, please vote for me.