Great Country Academician

The slow neutron irradiation experiment in Daya Bay has been completed. According to relevant test reports, this carbon composite material made of zirconia as an additive and catalyst has excellent performance in resisting neutron irradiation.

Although it is only the detection of slow neutron irradiation in the low-energy level area, the excellent data is enough to support Xu Chuan to turn on the dawn fusion device again to ignite the deuterium-tritium to test the anti-neutron irradiation of this material in a real high-energy level environment. capable.

The research and development of the first wall material itself is quite difficult.

They were lucky if they could find a way to the other shore in the mist.

As for how far the other side is, we will know after the real test is completed.

Relevant preparations are being carried out in an orderly manner under the busyness of many engineers and researchers.

After a new year, the sleepy Dawn fusion reactor will start up again, but this time, it is not known whether it will bring good news of joy, or push them back into the fog of chaos.

Meanwhile, the other side.

Europe, at the Planck Institute for Plasma in northern Germany.

A group of plasma physicists from various countries in the European Union are discussing in a large master control room.

The advanced achievements of the Lixiao fusion device made the United States worry about its international status, and further adopted more measures and means.

The seven member states of ITER have thus become six today.

And that Professor Xu also responded to this as always, and the cancellation of the sale of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite materials to ITER and related member states is the response.

I have to say that the United States is really a shit stick.

ITER has been faltering in recent years, and finally rekindled a little fusion light, but it was faltered by the other party immediately after.

Maybe they think that after clearing Huaguo from ITER, they can stop and slow down the other party's research progress on controllable nuclear fusion.

But it is Professor Xu, who is good at creating miracles, who is leading the Daybreak fusion device forward, so if it had to be that simple.

Today, ITER is almost dead in name only. In Europe, after losing the opportunity to obtain high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials from that person, the Planck Institute of Plasma Research is the only seedling.

Although the Planck Institute of Plasma Research and that Professor Xu traded technology rather than materials, the relevant contract also stipulated that high-temperature superconducting material technology was limited to the Planck Institute of Plasma Research for its own use.

Of course, there are many ways for them to get around this kind of contract agreement, but how can Germania and the Planck Institute of Plasma Research give up their advantages?

Wouldn't it be good for countries to gather funds and funds to do research on their side?

Anyway, there are reasons, and the question is the contract.

Based on this, other countries in the European Union have nothing to do. The best option is to cooperate with the Planck Institute of Plasma.

It has to be said that after the whole European Union got together, with sufficient research funding and the support of a large number of scientific researchers, Helix 7X has made quite rapid progress in the field of controllable nuclear fusion.

Originally, it needed to take the risk of damage to the first wall to run the high-density plasma for nearly an hour. However, after researchers from other countries joined in, especially mathematicians from France, they worked on the helicoid 7X. After redesigning a set of control schemes for high-density plasma turbulence, the running time is already close to the two-hour record created by Daybreak.

After seeing hope, the Planck Institute of Plasma Research also followed Xu Chuan's footsteps and began to deepen the fusion of deuterium-tritium raw materials.

Unfortunately, the problem of neutron irradiation has always been like a stumbling block on the way forward.

Even if experts in the field of materials are gathered, they still cannot advance such a small distance on this road.

Of course, the first wall material itself is a super problem, and it is normal that there is no progress in a short period of time. However, this is a bit unacceptable to the various gold master countries behind Helix 7X.

In the control room, through the monitoring screen, the line of sight was locked on the equipment that was gradually shutting down. Robert Mike, the supervisor standing in the main control room, looked at Tillman Lent beside him.

"When will we be able to follow in Huaguo's footsteps and conduct an ignition experiment?"

Hearing this question, Tillman Lunt couldn't help but frowned, and said with a headache: "There is no guarantee, the irradiation problem of the first wall has not made any progress. If this problem cannot be solved, forced ignition will damage the spiral stone. 7X does a lot of damage."

"What about anti-neutron materials? Is there any progress?" Robert Mac continued to ask: "I always need some results to explain to the above."

Hearing this, Tillman Lent smiled wryly, and said: "Many experiments have been done on the material, whether it is tungsten, molybdenum, or the austenitic steel used in Huaguo, or even ceramics, etc. There is no way to beat the previous record."

After a pause, he continued: "Moreover, judging from the progress of the materials laboratory, most metal materials may not be able to be applied to the first wall, whether it is tungsten, molybdenum, or zirconium. Wait for the alloy."

"These metal materials are irradiated by 14.1 Mev-level high-energy neutron beams, and the dislocation effect and swelling effect of metal bonds are too serious."

"If it's just anti-neutron irradiation, we still have some solutions, but the neutrons produced by deuterium-tritium fusion are the key to maintaining tritium's self-sustainability, and we can't reflect all of them back."

"Perhaps, the road of metal may not be suitable for the first wall material. We should consider ceramics, carbon nanomaterials, such as graphene or carbon nanotubes."

Robert Mac frowned and said, "Nanoceramics and carbon nanomaterials are old things, don't you have any new discoveries?"

Tillman Lunt shrugged helplessly, and said: "There are indeed many non-metallic materials, but you are not unaware of the harsh environment that the first wall materials need to face."

"The high temperature of thousands of degrees, the impact of various high-energy particles, the exposure of various radiation, and the most troublesome high-energy neutron beam, each of which is a big trouble."

Robert Mack sighed. As the director of the Planck Institute for Plasma Research, how could he not know these issues.

Just want to catch up with or even surpass the footsteps of Huaguo, they must take the lead in the first wall materials.

After thinking for a while, Robert suddenly asked: "You say, how will that Professor Xu solve this problem?"

Hearing this question, Tillman Lent fell into deep thought. After a while, he shook his head with a wry smile and said, "I don't know, I can't think of it."

"He was a miracle worker, and a true genius. Honestly, this kind of genius that has been rare throughout history may have a completely different perspective from ours."

"Otherwise it's hard for me to imagine how he managed to achieve so many great things at such a young age."

Looking at the Spiral Stone 7X that was undergoing experiments behind the screen, Tillman paused for a moment, and then said: "It would be fine if Huaguo didn't leave ITER. Then maybe we can visit Huaguo through ITER." Let's talk."

"After all, sometimes one idea is enough to push the progress far."

On the side, Robert didn't make a sound, just sighed slightly.

Stop dreaming.

Huaguo has already left, and it is impossible to think about it now.

What's more, in such a sensitive field as controllable nuclear fusion, no one can selflessly share the advanced technology in their hands.

The country of the United States is really crazy, and it will be demolished wherever it goes.

It's not just that ITER is about to be tossed to death, I heard that life at CERN is not very easy.

Under the semi-forced nature, CERN had already reached a cooperation, and even the contract to ship some high-temperature superconducting materials was forced to terminate.

Although Sakura Country and Mi Country soon signed a new contract and paid part of the scientific research funds, it is not yet known how long it will take for the restart of the LHC.

After losing the support of high-temperature superconducting materials and that Professor Xu, the detection and discovery of dark matter and dark energy can be said to be far away without any hope.

Many scholars in the fields of high-energy physics and particle physics hold extremely pessimistic views on this.

Even CERN may fall into the footsteps of ITER.

On the other side, Huaguo, Jinling.

Xu Chuan is not very clear about the progress of the Planck Institute for Plasma Research, and this kind of thing did not happen in the previous life when the EU as a whole was united.

However, controllable nuclear fusion is not a problem that can be solved by manpower.

Manpower can speed up the development and advancement of some conventional technologies, but those top world problems

For example, the mathematical model of plasma turbulence, the material of the first wall, or the high-temperature superconducting material with excellent performance are not technologies that can be piled up by manpower.

At least in a short period of time, it is impossible, and there may be a glimmer of hope for long-term investment.

Of course, it's just a glimmer of hope.

For example, the mathematical model of plasma turbulence is based on the perfect solution of the NS equation, and the precondition is a millennium mathematical conjecture.

Not to mention the latter material.

Unless you are very lucky, top-level materials can only be explored with a little bit of experience.

Although he is concerned about the progress of controllable nuclear fusion in Europe, he is more concerned about the performance of the carbon composite material synthesized from zirconia under high-energy neutron irradiation after the opening of the Xiaoxiao fusion device.

After all, rather than expecting others to pull your hips, it is better to keep yourself ahead of the curve to be the truth.

Under the leadership of Zhao Hongzhi, the engineers placed ten groups of zirconia-carbon composite materials and ten groups of different contrast materials on the first wall.

Immediately, the comprehensive inspection was completed, and the giant steel beast quietly lying in the core experiment area let out a soft sound, which was the sound of powerful current flowing through the outer field coil.

Supported by the excellent superconducting properties of the high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material, electrical energy is quickly converted into a magnetic field, controlling the operation of the high-temperature deuterium-tritium plasma in the reactor chamber.

In the main control room, Zhao Guanggui stood nervously behind Xu Chuan, his eyes switching back and forth between the console and Xu Chuan's back.

For him, the controllable nuclear fusion project is the biggest project he has participated in, not to mention that he also took on the important task of solving the problems related to the first wall material.

I heard that more than 50 billion RMB has been spent on this project so far, and it is scary to think about it.

Even, he couldn't fully understand what kind of concept 50 billion is.

The cost of the breaking dawn fusion device in front of me is as high as 2.5 billion, not to mention that it has been rebuilt many times in succession, each time costing tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

If the effect of the zirconia carbon composite material this time is not so ideal, he doesn't know how to face the experimental results.

PS: I took my father to Xiangya Hospital for the last follow-up visit yesterday. The relevant examinations have basically been completed, the medicine was prescribed, and the order was obtained. Yesterday's update was put on today (because of the urgent time, I didn't bring my computer or anything back).

There are two more chapters today.

In addition, as I promised you before, I will build a group after dealing with this matter, and it has been done. There is a link at the end of the chapter. If you are interested, you can come in and play.