Over the past few days, Lu Zhou had been in meetings all the time.
There were internal meetings at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, meetings at the STAR Stellarator Research Institute, and meetings with his partners …
He already had a rough blueprint in his mind on how to achieve a controllable fusion reactor. However, he couldn't achieve this blueprint by himself.
As the person in charge of this large-scale scientific research project and the chief designer, he had to divide this huge project into smaller parts and assign them to suitable people. He had to single out the difficult parts and focus on solving them.
For example, "Tritium Recovery from Plasma Exhaust and Deuterium-Tritium Fuel Supply", "Tritium Safety Containment", etc. He knew that the Chinese Academy of Sciences had already done similar research.
Therefore, he obviously didn't need to do this repetitive research work anymore. He only needed to give the people or institutions in this field enough funding to continue their in-depth research and find a way to apply it to the stellarator design.
As for "First Wall Cladding Materials", "Anti-neutron Irradiation Materials", "Tritium Extraction from Proliferating Cladding", and "Tritium Retention", etc., Lu Zhou left these to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study. He would personally lead a team to solve these problems.
Three days after the project was launched.
At the STAR Stellarator Research Institute, Lu Zhou met with a team sent by the China National Nuclear Corporation.
The person in charge of the team was Academician Wang Zengguang, the chief engineer of the China National Nuclear Corporation. This old academician had been working in the nuclear industry for many years, and he had a wealth of experience in the design of fission reactors and nuclear power generators.
Even though his experience in fission reactors might not be completely applicable to fusion reactors, they were both nuclear power plants, so there were still similarities between the two.
For example, the design of the generator set.
The old academician brought a design sketch for how to convert the heat generated by the reactor into electricity.
He used the design idea of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor as a reference, and this set of equipment could also be used for nuclear fusion power generation.
However, after taking a brief look at this sketch, Lu Zhou put it down.
"It's hard to come up with such advanced technology, it would be a waste to keep boiling water."
Academician Wang: "But you have to admit that boiling water is still the most efficient way."
Lu Zhou shook his head. "Not necessarily."
Academician Wang didn't say anything but waited for Lu Zhou to continue.
However, Lu Zhou didn't give any explanation. He just took a piece of A4 paper and spread it on the table. He then picked up a ballpoint pen and started drawing on it.
As his engineering level reached lvl 4, after a period of adaptation, he finally began to experience the effects of the increase in his engineering level.
If the mathematics level strengthened the learning of mathematical knowledge, the sensitivity to numbers, and the ability to calculate, then the engineering level, in addition to improving the absorption of engineering knowledge, further strengthened the ability to describe abstract concepts with language, graphics, numbers, and other tools.
Just like now.
Although he had never been professionally trained in drawing and had only read relevant books, the muscles in his arms seemed to have memorized these movements. Even a casual stroke was as standard as drawing with a ruler.
Academician Wang looked at Lu Zhou's drawing movements and narrowed his eyes. There was a flash of surprise in his pupils.
"You've learned mechanical drawing before?"
"No." Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Maybe it's because I've been studying geometry, so I've drawn a lot."
When Academician Wang heard this explanation, he was in disbelief.
Even though he had never studied mathematics, he knew that drawing in engineering and drawing in mathematics were completely different.
Lu Zhou's skillful strokes were impossible without at least three to five years of experience.
Regardless of whether Academician Wang believed him or not, Lu Zhou didn't need to explain anything. He just focused on the work at hand.
First, he used lines to outline the outline of the stellarator. Then, he used this to outline the structure of the generator.
Academician Wang stared at the clearer and clearer lines on the drawing. He began to notice something, and he raised his eyebrows with interest.
"Ferrofluid power generation?"
"That's right." Lu Zhou put down the pen in his hand and looked at the sketch. He nodded with satisfaction and said, "This is the best I can do. I'll have to trouble you experts for the specific design."
Just like controllable fusion technology, ferrofluid power generation wasn't a particularly new concept. It had a long history.
Looking at the timeline, this concept was first proposed along with the "gas-steam turbine combined cycle technology (GTCC)".
In the 1980s, ferrofluid power generation was even included as a key project in the 863 program. It was placed on par with nuclear fission power generation.
Considering that the full name of the 863 program was "Recommendations on Tracking the World's Strategic High-Tech Development", it was basically tracking hot research directions in the international academic community at the time. It wasn't difficult to see that ferrofluid power generation was popular in the international academic community at the time.
However, in the second half of the 20th century, the situation changed.
Aerospace and the arms race led to the rapid development of engine technology and gas application technology. GTCC technology learned a lot from this, and finally achieved a counterattack by overtaking other cars at the corner.
In contrast, even though ferrofluid power technology seemed to have a more attractive future, it was difficult to achieve due to technical reasons. The economic benefits couldn't keep up with the market demand, and there weren't any decent results for decades. Therefore, it was gradually abandoned by the mainstream academia and industry.
Academician Wang stared at this sketch and shook his head. "Forgive me for being blunt, but ferrofluid power generation technology isn't perfect yet. I'm afraid it's not a suitable choice to generate electricity. The world's nuclear fission reactors are mainly pressurized water reactors. I've never heard of a nuclear power plant using ferrofluid power generation technology. "
Lu Zhou knew that Academician Wang would say this, so he smiled and spoke.
"This is true for nuclear fission, but not for nuclear fusion."
"Oh?" Academician Wang had a surprised look on his face. He looked at Lu Zhou and asked, "What do you mean?"
Lu Zhou: "The difficulty of ferrofluid power generation technology is the ionization of the gas. Normally, it is difficult to heat a gas to a high temperature of 2000 degrees and form a plasma beam. Even if it is done, this process is likely to be accompanied by a large amount of heat loss. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve a cycle efficiency of more than 20% for ferrofluid power generation technology … Am I right? "
Academician Wang nodded and said, "That's basically it."
Even though there were other problems, this was undoubtedly the most important one.
It wasn't like ferrofluid power generators didn't exist. Many laboratories could make them, including coal-fired ones and oil-fired ones. However, almost no one could achieve an energy conversion efficiency of more than 20%.
But if it was nuclear fusion …
"If it's nuclear fusion, we don't have this problem at all." Lu Zhou looked at Academician Wang and smiled. He said, "After all, the nuclear waste produced by DT fusion itself is helium with a temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees."
Academician Wang's expression changed slightly. He immediately looked at the sketch again and quickly realized what was going on.
Everyone knew that the principle of ferrofluid power generation was to heat the easily ionized gas to a high temperature of 2000 degrees, then ionize it into a conductive plasma beam. When it flowed at a high speed in the magnetic field, it cut the magnetic field lines and produced an induced electromotive force.
The helium produced by the "D + T" fusion reaction in the stellarator existed in the form of a plasma with a high temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees!
In other words, they didn't need to spend more energy heating the ionized gas. They only needed to use the plasma that carried a huge amount of energy!
Even though this technology was useless when used on coal-fired, oil-fired, or even nuclear fission power generation, it was tailor-made for nuclear fusion power generation!
Instead of using high-temperature plasma to boil water, it would be a waste.
Academician Wang stared at the sketch with excitement in his eyes.
He looked up at Lu Zhou and spoke in a cautious tone.
"What you said makes sense … It seems to be possible in theory, but I can't give you an accurate answer right now. I need to go back and discuss it with the other experts in the group."
Then, he looked at the sketch again.
"Can I take this sketch back?"
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