Early October.
The entrance of the base was bustling.
A few heavy-duty trucks were parked next to the construction site. With the assistance of on-site construction workers and lifting equipment, they carefully unloaded the equipment.
Xiao Le stood next to Lu Zhou as he looked at the heavy equipment being transported into the base.
"This thing was originally sold to ITER, but they probably won't buy it now."
The device in front of the two was the legendary ICRF heating antenna.
This device consisted of a transmitter, transmission line, impedance matching device, and the most important heating antenna. The ICRF output energy could reach 3 MW, and the frequency could be adjusted between 30 and 110 Mhz.
As one of the key components of the fusion device, this thing could be said to be the second most advanced technology of the Fuyang Material Research Institute, other than the all-superconducting D-type cross-section design.
In addition to being purchased by General Atomics, this device, which was worth hundreds of millions of yuan, also received an order from the ITER demonstration reactor project.
However, it seemed like the Europeans probably wouldn't buy it.
Xiao Le paused for a second and said, "This device was originally planned to be dismantled and shipped to France, but our cooperation with them has been interrupted. With this thing, we can quickly heat the plasma inside the reactor to more than 100 million degrees. One could say that this is one of the most advanced plasma heating technologies in the world! "
Lu Zhou nodded and looked at the device with interest.
Even though it was called an ICRF heating antenna, it looked more like an air conditioner that had been magnified dozens of times compared to what he thought an antenna should be.
The shape of the steel bracket under the device was similar to the steel bracket under the air conditioner. The protective limiter and current band protruded forward, like a combination of an air conditioner's filter and fan blades.
Behind it was a tubular vacuum transmission line, a hydraulic driver, and the key vacuum feed port.
During the experiment, the "air conditioner fan blades" protective limiter was located at the front of the ICRF heating antenna. Together with the current band next to it, they formed the plasma heating component and the "Faraday shielding box". It heated the plasma while isolating the plasma from the current band. It also prevented the electrostatic field from coupling to the plasma.
Because it directly faced the plasma in the vacuum chamber, there were 43 10mm diameter cooling pipes welded on it.
Even though the entire device looked complicated and huge, it lacked some sci-fi aesthetics. However, there was not a single unnecessary design on the device. Every welding joint was carefully designed.
Therefore, it was not an easy task to change these designs.
An old engineer wearing a gray jacket and a hard hat walked over. He looked at Lu Zhou and smiled.
"What do you think? This thing looks good, right? "
When Lu Zhou heard this, he smiled and said, "It looks pretty reliable. I just hope it can run normally on the stellarator."
The old engineer waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, even if it doesn't work now, I can make it work."
The old man standing in front of Lu Zhou was called Li Jiangang. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was also the vice president of the University of Science and Technology of China.
Although the old man majored in ship power as an undergraduate, he somehow switched to plasma physics halfway through his studies. Later on, he caught up with the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The research of controllable fusion was becoming more and more important in China. His academic career also progressed along with the development of history. He became the deputy dean of the Institute of Science and Technology, then he became an academician.
Before China left ITER, he was one of China's expert committee members. He played a huge part in the fact that the ICRF heating antenna technology was widely recognized internationally.
Now that China left ITER, he became a consultant for the National Fusion Energy Program Execution Center. He was also responsible for coordinating the work of the Fuyang Institute of Matter in the demonstration reactor project, which was the heating components of the entire demonstration reactor.
Xiao Le, who was standing next to Lu Zhou, was his student, and he was recommended by Li Jiangang.
Lu Zhou trusted this big name's guarantee.
"Then I'll have to trouble you, I have a few simple requests."
Professor Li took out his notebook and didn't waste any time.
"Go ahead."
Lu Zhou nodded and recalled the details of the project that were discussed in the previous meetings.
"Corresponding to the different types of plasma in the stellarator discharge experiment, the heating antenna needs to be able to move in the radial direction. The range of movement is between minus 150 millimeters and plus 150 millimeters, and the adjustment accuracy is one millimeter. Can this be done? "
Professor Li said without hesitation, "This shouldn't be a problem."
Lu Zhou nodded and spoke.
"The characteristic impedance of the antenna's vacuum feed port, transmission line, and other components must meet the design requirement of 50Ω. The allowable voltage of the inner and outer conductors must be 45KV.
"The current band and Faraday shield all need to be designed with independent cooling circuits, and the cooling capacity must be able to withstand a heat load of MW/m2.
"Also, while considering the assembly and maintainability of the antenna, try to reduce the welding area. The total leakage rate of the antenna must be less than 10 ^ -10Pa · m ^ 3/s."
"…"
At first, Academician Li had a relaxed expression on his face. However, after listening to Lu Zhou's words, the relaxed smile on his face gradually disappeared. He felt his scalp tingle.
Lu Zhou felt a little thirsty, so he took the bottle of mineral water from Wang Peng's hand and took a sip. He threw the plastic bottle back and said, "Don't worry, I'll have to ask you to pay for it.
"… That's the basic situation. I might have spoken too fast, but when the meeting outline is done tonight, I'll email you the specific requirements. "
Hearing the last sentence, Li Jiangang put down the pen in his hand.
He stared at the notebook in his hand for a while and frowned for a while. Finally, he forced a smile on his face.
"… You really know how to make things difficult for us. Even the ITER bidding conference in Europe doesn't have this many problems."
When Lu Zhou heard this, he smiled and said, "After all, this is the first reactor. A good start is a good demonstration. I want to make it as perfect as possible."
Even though the system didn't specify the specific "acceptance criteria" for the DEMO demonstration reactor, there was no doubt that the mission reward was proportional to the results. The more impressive the demonstration reactor was, the higher the mission reward would be.
Not to mention, from a practical point of view, the better the performance of the demonstration reactor, the less resistance there would be during the technology promotion phase. From a researcher's perspective, he also hoped that his research could be recognized by the country and even the world.
Academician Li closed his notebook and said, "Okay then, after I take care of things here tomorrow, I'll go back to the institute and do some research. I'll give you the results in two days."
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Okay, thanks."
…
After arranging the last task, the work at the STAR-2 demonstration reactor base was basically on the right track. Whether it was the construction site or the research institute, everything was in full swing.
The demonstration reactor was like a torch that illuminated the future of China's nuclear fusion research.
Even though there weren't any impassioned speeches, everyone working here had a strong sense of mission.
They are engaged in a great work.
Their research was ahead of the rest of the world.
Up until now, under the leadership of the project leader, they had achieved countless in-progress results, won countless victories, and proved themselves countless times.
Also, everyone had no doubt that as long as Chief Designer Lu was there, they would continue to win until they crossed the finish line.
It was hard to have negative emotions in a work environment like this.
It could be said that even the chefs in the cafeteria were working with enthusiasm.
If everything went well, all of the components could be completed before the end of the year.
As for whether it would be before New Year's or Chinese New Year's, that would depend on luck.
For Lu Zhou, there were only two things that he needed to solve right now.
One was to go back to the STAR Stellarator Research Institute at Purple Mountain and use the STAR experimental reactor to complete the final design of the liquid lithium neutron recovery system as soon as possible.
Since everyone else was doing so well, he couldn't hold them back.
As the core component of the entire nuclear fusion reactor, it could be said that this part of the design directly determined the success or failure of the STAR-2 demonstration reactor project. If this part was completed, after the "plasma control technology", he would also be able to overcome the second difficulty of controllable fusion, "tritium retention".
At the same time, this was the last obstacle.
As for what kind of generator set to generate electricity, what kind of device to use for heat, what kind of "safety" to be installed under the reactor, etc., these were all factors that determined whether or not the result of victory could be more perfect.
As for the other thing, it was to solve the problem of the supercomputer algorithm.
So far, the plasma control of the STAR experimental reactor was completed with the help of Xiao Ai.
Once the demonstration reactor was built, he couldn't just put Xiao Ai on the demonstration reactor's main control computer, right?
After all, no matter what, Xiao Ai wasn't suitable to be in public, at least not right now.
The ideal solution was to separate the algorithm related to the plasma control scheme from the main program.
If he could solve these two problems and then complete the assembly of the "puzzle".
The completion of the demonstration reactor was just around the corner.
When Lu Zhou thought about this, he couldn't help but feel excited.
Countless days and nights of hard work.
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