Great Country Academician

What Qi Zhongxing said made Xu Chuan's heart skip a beat.

He said in a deep voice, "You should have told me earlier."

This problem is serious and serious, because it may lead to the delay of the "Nuclear Beta Radiation Energy Concentration and Conversion Mechanism for Electric Energy" project.

But it’s okay to say it’s not serious, because it can be solved as long as the performance of the particle accelerator is improved.

The output energy level and stability of linear particle accelerators are not enough, which is a limitation of the times.

In his last life, he studied this technology in 2025, and now it is 2019. After six or seven years, it is enough for the physics community to improve the performance of particle accelerators by one or two levels.

In other words, the performance of the linear particle accelerator used in this life cannot meet the requirements. According to normal development, it will take five or six years to upgrade.

Moreover, this is the country of China. Compared with Western countries such as the United States and Europe, the development of particle accelerators in China is much behind.

This is an objective fact that no one can deny.

Han Jin bowed his head and said: "Sorry, professor, we didn't think it was a big problem at first, after all, the difficulty of the linear particle accelerator in the whole project is really not that big. In addition, considering that you are doing your own research, a project is not difficult. I can't rely on you alone, so there is no report."

"It's just that no one thought that the impact of this problem would be so great."

Xu Chuan shook his head and said, "It's useless to talk about it now, first let me see the parameters and performance of your customized particle accelerator."

Speaking of problems, in fact, he also has problems.

On this issue, he did not think thoroughly. After all, when he was working on this project in California, the United States, it was the linear particle accelerator provided by the California Institute of Nuclear Energy. Since this problem did not occur, he did not pay much attention to the performance of the linear particle accelerator.

After all, it is impossible for him to pay attention to all aspects of a large-scale cooperation project.

It's just that he didn't expect that in five or six years, there would be such a big gap between particle accelerators at home and abroad.

But fortunately, there are still remedies, and I hope there is time.

Shaking his head, Xu Chuan followed Han Jin and Qi Zhongxing to the Institute of Nuclear Energy.

Although the performance of the linear particle accelerator in hand cannot meet the requirements theoretically, it is already the best particle accelerator in China.

In the research institute, Xu Chuan flipped through the documents in his hand.

The Institute of Nuclear Energy purchased an ion linear accelerator, which consists of electron cyclotron resonance ion source, large separation fan cyclotron, cooling storage ring, main ring pipeline, radioactive beam line, experimental terminal and other major facilities.

This is not newly built equipment, but purchased from a certain national nuclear energy laboratory. It cost a full 1.37 billion, which can be said to be the most expensive of the entire project.

The performance of this linear particle accelerator is very good, with a total length of 850 meters, an accelerating electric field of up to 30 M/m, and a working frequency of 3500-11000 MHz

In China, this performance can already be said to be top-notch, even if it is placed internationally, it is also a first-line.

This kind of thing can be said to be a core treasure in any laboratory. If the "Nuclear Beta Radiation Energy Concentration and Conversion Mechanism" project is a national key project, and the research institute that owns this linear accelerator is It is impossible for Xu Chuan, a state-owned enterprise, to purchase this accelerator.

But now, even if this accelerator is already the best in the country, it still cannot meet the requirements. This is the biggest problem at present.

In the office, Xu Chuan, Han Jin and Qi Zhongxing exchanged solutions to this problem.

To solve this problem, there are actually many ways.

For example, buy and customize a particle accelerator abroad, or promote the development of particle accelerators, improve the performance of today's accelerators, and so on.

But these methods and means take too long, and Xu Chuan can't wait that long.

At the beginning of this year, he went to the capital and saw the project approval document for controllable nuclear fusion. It was an opportunity for him, but he might not wait for a long time.

If too long is wasted on the nuclear waste project, this opportunity may be missed.

This was unacceptable to Xu Chuan.

So we must find a way to solve this problem as soon as possible.

Xu Chuan frowned and flipped through the materials, looking for a solution to the problem.

The 'Nuclear Beta Radiation Energy Concentration and Transformation Mechanism' project has come to an end, and it was just a step away from completion, but now something has gone wrong.

Although a scientific research project cannot always be smooth sailing, even project delays are a normal thing, and the above will understand.

After all, this is the constraint of the times, but the hard conditions of the particle accelerator equipment cannot meet the requirements, and the ideas and concepts are no problem.

Moreover, strictly speaking, the nuclear energy project only started in the second half of last year, and it has only been eight or nine months. At present, the nuclear energy project has entered the stage of the construction of experimental reactors, which is already quite fast for a large-scale project. .

Normally, a project of this level would take at least five or six years to produce results.

But for Xu Chuan, he couldn't accept it.

The delay of the nuclear waste power conversion project will disrupt many of his subsequent arrangements and plans.

Moreover, it is the ability of a qualified person in charge to face and solve the problems and emergencies encountered in the project.

"First of all, repurchasing or customizing a new linear particle accelerator can be ruled out, not to mention whether the accelerators in other countries can meet the requirements, whether they will be sold, etc., it is too late in terms of time alone.

Similarly, it is definitely too late to research and develop superconducting materials now, it will take a long time, and the testing and verification and production cycle have exceeded the budget.”

Staring at the structure diagram of the linear particle accelerator in front of him, Xu Chuan thought about possible solutions.

There are many ways to solve the problem of insufficient energy level and stability of the accelerator. For example, getting out the superconducting material and redesigning and deploying the cyclotron pipeline of the accelerator is enough to raise the energy level and stability of the linear particle accelerator in front of us to the required level.

But the disadvantage is that the rectification time is too long, and it takes at least half a year to go through the entire process of R\u0026D-production-reset.

And now, he still has at most two months.

It's mid-April, and in mid-June, he has to finish running the nuclear waste power plant.

Not to mention putting it into commercialization now, but at least the experimental reactor in front of us needs to be put into use and testing, which is Xu Chuan's bottom line requirement.

"If this is the case, it should be one of the most feasible ways to modify the ion linear accelerator in front of us."

"And what about the magnetic mirror control system?"

Xu Chuan thought of the superconducting magnetic mirror control system developed during his research on controllable nuclear fusion in his previous life, which has a strong effect on the control of ultra-high temperature plasma.

But the difference is that the magnetic mirror control system at that time was based on the room temperature superconducting material system he developed, but now, is it feasible to use conventional ultra-low temperature superconducting materials?

Xu Chuan is a little uncertain about this. Although theoretically, the properties of room-temperature superconducting materials and ultra-low-temperature superconducting materials are almost the same, there are still some differences in practice.

And more importantly, to deploy ultra-low temperature superconducting materials, a certain degree of modification of the space for deploying linear particle accelerators is required.

After all, today's ultra-low temperature superconductivity is generally carried out through liquid helium freezing, although it is only a part of the transformation, this is quite a troublesome thing.

"If we give up the control of the magnetic mirror, is there any way to enhance the energy level and stability of the particle accelerator?"

"Maybe, I can split this problem into two to deal with first?"

Suddenly, an idea popped up in Xu Chuan's mind.

This is a common method in theoretical science when facing a difficult problem, splitting the difficult problem, and then solving it one by one.

Particle instability in particle accelerators generally occurs when the average energy of accelerated particles through a circular machine reaches its transition value.

When the turning point occurs when the particles orbit the ring at the same rate, a range of energies is exhibited even though they don't all carry the same energy.

This leads to specific motions of the particles around the transition energy making them highly susceptible to collective instability.

Just like light and a microscope illuminate the object under observation.

The stronger the beam, the easier it is for scientists to examine the objects they are looking at.

But the intensity comes at a price. The stronger the speed of light, the easier it is to dazzle the eyes or the strong light will cover everything, making it impossible to see anything.

This is like driving at night and a super bright high-beam car is coming across from you. The closer you get to it, the more you will find that there is nothing in your sight except the lights. (PS: Yuanguang dog gave me a shark!)

Such instabilities have been studied by the physics community for decades, but are still not fully understood.

Of course, just because the physics community doesn't fully understand this instability doesn't mean it can't be controlled.

For example, technologies such as proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration and radio frequency cavity propulsion can weaken the instability to a certain extent.

As a top scientist in the field of high-energy physics, Xu Chuan naturally knows how to solve this kind of thing.

If it is simply to improve stability, he has many methods in his hands.

For example, by adding an SMI to control the wake field at the node of the helical acceleration chamber, the control of the particle flow can be increased to a certain extent.

Or by deploying multiple strong magnetic mirror hoops to control the orbit in the linear particle accelerator.

But either way, there are limitations.

Whether deploying SMI to control the wake field or multiple strong magnetic mirror ferrules, they are limited to acceleration experiments below a certain energy level. If the output energy level is too strong, both will lose their effect.

This means that energy levels and stability cannot be obtained at the same time, just like having a fish and a bear's paw.

This was where Xu Chuan had a headache.

If stability is taken care of, then the energy level of the linear accelerator cannot be increased, and the controllable fission rate of nuclear waste will be reduced a lot, which in turn will lead to a decrease in power generation.

But when the energy level is raised, the stability cannot be taken care of, which is even more dangerous.

The uncontrolled particle beam is not the ion radiation emitted by nuclear waste. It itself carries a huge kinetic energy, which will cause great damage to the radiation gap semiconductor material and protective material.

"It's a real headache."

In the office, Xu Chuan shook his head staring at the design drawings in front of him.

After staying here for several days, there have been many large and small exchange meetings, but neither he nor other researchers have thought of any good way to take into account stability and energy level intensity at the same time.

"Huh, let's go for a walk first."

Shaking his head, Xu Chuan put down the blueprint in his hand, pushed open the door of the office and walked out.

Now it's time to get off work, and groups of workers and researchers walk through the industrial park in twos and threes.

This nuclear energy industrial park has been well established. There are not only accommodation buildings, but also various rest and entertainment facilities.

Along the way, Xu Chuan saw various entertainment facilities such as basketball courts, table tennis courts, and tennis courts, and many people were playing against each other inside.

He wasn't very interested in ball games, but it would be fine, and he was relaxed again, so he simply found a place to sit down and watch these people play.

Staring at the court for a while, just when Xu Chuan felt a little bored and wanted to get up to eat, the movement on the basketball court made him stop.

Before his eyes, half the court, a basketball got stuck right on the edge of the rim.

A group of players looked at each other, trying to jump and find a way to get the ball down, but the players in this half of the court seemed to have average jumping ability, and they didn't touch the ball after tossing for a long time.

Immediately, someone ran to the other half to borrow a basketball, which seemed to be about to drop it.

However, it seemed that the first basketball card was a little tight. After two attempts, it still had no effect. Then, to Xu Chuan's astonishment, the second ball was also stuck on it after a while.

Well, the nature has changed now.

Xu Chuan stopped and watched the group of people tossing with interest.

To be honest, this kind of stuck basketball can be removed with a pole or a personal ladder, but boys who play basketball usually ignore these things automatically.

And when the second ball gets stuck, their goal is not to get the ball down.

Seeing a group of people smashing the ball, seeing the basketballs being stuck up one by one, and finally being smashed down by a basketball as a whole piled up on the basket, a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in Xu Chuan's mind.

"If the basket full of basketballs is regarded as an atomic nucleus, and the last ball is regarded as a high-energy particle, under the collision of the high-energy particle, the atomic nucleus disintegrates to form independent protons and neutrons."

"This process is very similar to the chain reaction of nuclear fission. If enough neutrons can be obtained, then the decay rate of nuclear waste can be accelerated without a high enough energy level?"

In my mind, a flash of lightning suddenly split the fog.

If it is impossible to increase the energy level in a short time, then it is also possible to increase the number of neutrons.

This is not a collision for experiments. It has strict requirements on the energy level. A high energy level is just to increase the decay rate of nuclear waste and increase the power generation. There is no need to die on the energy level.

Maybe, I know what to do!

Xu Chuan murmured, and quickly ran towards the office with bright eyes.