Great Country Academician

The leaders of Jinling City left and took Gao Hongming with them to discuss the settlement of controllable nuclear fusion.

In the huge villa, only Xu Chuan and Peng Hongxi were left.

"I didn't expect you to solve the problem of nuclear waste so quickly." Holding a teacup, Peng Hongxi sighed after taking a small sip.

When the young man in front of him invited him to join the project last year, he never thought that such a large-scale project could be completed in one year.

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "It's just luck. If you choose the right direction, it will naturally be faster to study."

Peng Hongxi shook his head slightly, and said: "Without strength, no luck. I've seen your solution to the energy level and stability of the linear particle accelerator. If you don't have a deep understanding of physics, it is impossible to come up with such a plan." a solution."

After a pause, he continued: "Let's not talk about this, let's talk about controllable nuclear fusion."

"I heard that this controlled nuclear fusion project is independent and you are in charge. Have you considered the route of controlled nuclear fusion? Which one are you going to take, magnetic confinement? Or inertial confinement?"

Magnetic confinement and inertial confinement are currently the two mainstream international routes for research on controllable nuclear fusion. Among these two routes, the United States is more optimistic about inertial confinement and has gone relatively far on it. Huaguo, on the other hand, put its bets on the magnetic confinement route, and went further on this.

Xu Chuan thought for a while, and said, "Compared with inertial restraint, I'm more optimistic about magnetic restraint."

"How to say?" Peng Hongxi asked with interest.

Xu Chuan pondered for a while, and said: "Inertial confinement does not use a magnetic field to control the fusion plasma, but uses shock waves to compress it to the huge density required for fusion. The plasma only maintains its shape for a moment through inertia, and then expands and emit energy."

"Compared to magnetic confinement, inertial confinement has a fatal shortcoming. The current laser energy booster is doomed that its laser can only be fired once every few hours, and cannot generate continuous and stable energy. It is more difficult to commercialize. And the real output energy is much lower than the input energy.”

"And how to increase the central pressure in the fuel hot spot to billions of times the atmospheric pressure is one of the keys to achieving commercially viable nuclear fusion."

"If these two points are not resolved, it can be said that the commercialization of power generation in inertial confinement is far away. In comparison, even magnetic confinement has some problems, but I am still more optimistic."

"Then are you going to study tokamak or stellarator?" Peng Hongxi asked.

Xu Chuan shook his head and said, "None."

"Huh?" Peng Hongxi cast a puzzled look at the young man sitting opposite him.

Xu Chuan leaned back on the back of the sofa, with a relaxed smile on his face: "Whether it is a tokamak or a stellarator, each has its own shortcomings."

"Tokamak is currently the mainstream magnetic confinement method, which has the advantages of very little waste generated by the reaction and good reproducibility, but there are still technical difficulties, such as how to stably confine the plasma."

"Although the stellarator has inherent advantages in energy confinement, the confinement of the plasma is far superior to that of the tokamak, but the confinement performance of the stellarator is much lower than that of the tokamak, and it is currently unable to do so. to achieve precise quasi-symmetry. This means that any small violation of symmetry can lead to a significant enhancement of neoclassical transmission."

Peng Hongxi asked curiously: "Then what is your choice?"

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Multiple magnetic mirrors are tightly looped and controlled."

"Multiple magnetic mirrors and ring control?" Peng Hongxi repeated, with a puzzled look in his eyes. He has been engaged in nuclear fusion for so many years, and this is the first time he has heard of this term.

Of course, from the name, he can probably understand what it is. It's just that this device seems to have no precedent, which is equivalent to starting from nothing. Not to mention the difficulty. Controllable nuclear fusion itself is a super difficult problem. If we start from scratch, God knows when it will be able to achieve such a small result.

Xu Chuan nodded, his eyes were a little wandering, as if he was caught in memories or other things, but this did not delay his communication with Peng Hongxi.

"Although the development of tokamak and stellarator has become two almost completely different fusion devices, they are actually made based on the principle of magnetic confinement if the differences such as shape are aside."

"The advantage of the star simulator is that it can directly generate a twisted annular magnetic cage through the external coil, thereby enhancing the confinement of the plasma, but the tokamak cannot, and its own structure cannot do it."

"But what if parts of the two were combined to create a new type of fusion device?"

"The multi-mirror hoop ring control device is a new device conceived based on this concept. It is further optimized on the tokamak device and stellarator device, combined with the partial design of the spherical bed. something new."

After a pause, Xu Chuan regained his attention from being distracted, smiled at Peng Hongxi, and added by the way: "Of course, it only exists in my mind at present."

True, the multi-mirror hoop ring control device existed only in his mind at the moment, but not in the future.

In his previous life at Princeton, he received support to revamp the Spherical Torus Experimental Magnetic Fusion Facility (NSTX-U) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

The transformed NSTX-U was upgraded to NSTX-UX1, and NSTX-UX1 achieved fusion reaction control for up to 30 minutes.

And this project, he participated in the whole process, so he has full confidence in how to adjust the fusion equipment.

Of course, NSTX-UX1 is optimized based on room temperature superconducting materials, so before that, he has to get the superconducting materials out first.

On the opposite side, after listening to Xu Chuan's explanation, Peng Hongxi couldn't help frowning.

"I don't know what kind of fusion device you conceived, but I have to remind you that a device with complex and twisted shapes is most likely not suitable for controlled nuclear fusion, and the plasma turbulence in the inner chamber is not so good controlling."

Peng Hongxi felt that Xu Chuan was a bit whimsical, maybe because he was too young, and he solved all the problems along the way smoothly, so that his thoughts on controllable nuclear fusion also jumped like this.

Of course, he has such qualifications.

At the age of 21, he won the two top awards, the Nobel Prize and the Fields Medal, plus his research on nuclear waste. It is not surprising to say that he is the number one person in the scientific community in China or even in the world. Pass.

Just combine the tokamak and the stellarator, and then intercept the spherical bed and fuse them together to make a new fusion reactor device. I don't know if there will be anyone behind this idea, but it is definitely unprecedented.

For various reasons, he must at least remind that controllable nuclear fusion is not so easy to solve.

He didn't want to see the young man in front of him squandering the country's resources and money because of his own ideas.

Perhaps this is indeed a feasible path, but based on his decades of experience in controllable nuclear fusion, not to mention that it cannot be realized, even if it can be realized, it may cost a lot of money to try and make mistakes on a brand new path. funds.

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "What if I have a way to solve and control the plasma turbulence in the reactor chamber?"

"This is impossible!"

Peng Hongxi retorted without thinking, but then he was stunned, his eyes fixed on Xu Chuan for a moment, and his breathing became heavy involuntarily.

He suddenly remembered that the Zeng in front of him had pushed the NS equation to a whole new level in the first half of the year, proving that the paper had also been published in the Annals of Mathematics.

And this result is being studied by the mathematics, physics and even industry. It can be said that it is the hottest emerging field in the current scientific field, because it solves the problem in the field of fluid mechanics and is of great help to the development of science and technology.

But if you want to say who is the absolute top in this field, no one can beat this young man who has pushed the NS equation to a new level.

"Have you found a way to control the plasma turbulence?" Peng Hongxi asked incredulously with heavy breathing and slight trembling.

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Theoretically speaking, I have indeed found a way to model plasma turbulence. The results I made not long ago have not been made public. Want to see it?"

"Where? Of course."

Peng Hongxi quickly asked, if he hadn't forcibly controlled himself to sit on the sofa, he would have stood up straight away. In this case, he kept leaning forward, as if the closer the distance was, the more he saw the solution. The closer the same.

Just as Xu Chuan wanted to get up and go to the study to get the manuscript paper, he patted his head. His previous research was still at Nantah University, and he hasn't been able to get it back these two days because of issues such as the settlement and site selection of controllable nuclear fusion.

"The manuscript paper is at the office of Nantah University. I'll make a phone call and ask my student to deliver it. It should be delivered within ten minutes." Xu Chuan smiled embarrassedly, took out his mobile phone from his pocket and called Gu Bing. Telephone.

"Hello, Gu Bing, are you in the office?" Xu Chuan quickly asked after dialing the phone.

"Yes, Professor. What's the matter?" Gu Bing replied quickly.

"In the drawer of my desk, there is a manuscript paper clipped together with a long tail clip. Please help me deliver it to my villa."

"Okay, wait a minute." Gu Bing replied on the phone, got up and walked towards the tutor's desk.

Looking through the drawer, Gu Bing's doubtful voice came from the phone: "Professor, are you sure it's in the drawer? I searched for three drawers, and there was no manuscript paper that you said was stacked with clips, only Some unused A4s and pens or something?"

"No? No, I remember it was in the drawer." Xu Chuan had a question mark on his face, did he remember it correctly?

When I modeled plasma turbulence before, because I needed to use those theoretical foundations, I just clipped it with a clip and put it in a drawer for easy access.

"No, Professor, did you take it back?" Gu Bing replied affirmatively. He searched all three drawers in front of him, but he didn't find the manuscript paper that the tutor said.

"It's weird, okay, I see." Xu Chuan answered and hung up the phone.

"What's the matter?" On the other side, after seeing Xu Chuan hang up the phone, Peng Hongxi quickly asked.

"The manuscript paper I put in the office seems to be missing, maybe I brought it back here?"

Xu Chuan replied uncertainly, got up and walked towards the study.

He clearly remembered it correctly, could it be possible that he brought it back?

Usually he does research either in the study of the villa, or in the office of Nantah University.

After the nuclear waste project was over, I had to spend more time at Nantah University some time ago because I had to make up for the classes I didn't attend at Nantah University.

It didn't make much difference to him, anyway, Nantah University also had an independent office, except for the two students Gu Bing and Amelia, there was no one else.

"The manuscript paper is gone?" Peng Hongxi looked at Xu Chuan suspiciously, and the first reaction in his mind was such a coincidence? After all, the two of them were still talking about this just now.

Xu Chuan: "Maybe I brought it back here, I'll look for it first."

Hearing this, Peng Hongxi also got up and followed him to the study, watching Xu Chuan bending over in the study to search here and there.

After a while, Xu Chuan stood up, scratched his head, smiled awkwardly at Peng Hongxi, and said, "It doesn't seem to be here either, I'll call again and ask."

As he spoke, he called Gu Bing again.

"Hey, Gu Bing, ask Amelia if she has touched the manuscript paper in my drawer?" Xu Chuan asked.

Gu Bing asked and quickly replied: "No, we usually don't touch your things, and we won't touch your desk for cleaning."

"That would be strange."

Xu Chuan didn't understand. He clearly remembered that the manuscript paper was kept in the desk drawer. If he brought it back, he didn't have it in the study. He can't throw this kind of thing anywhere else.

As for what Gu Bing and Amelia lied about, it basically does not exist, after all it is unnecessary.

"Would you like to go over and have a look together?" Peng Hongxi asked.

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Okay."

After calling Zheng Hai, Xu Chuan and Peng Hongxi rushed to Nantah.

"Professor, Academician Peng."

In the office, Gu Bing and Amelia were doing their own research. When they saw Xu Chuan and Peng Hongxi, they hurriedly got up to say hello.

Xu Chuan nodded, walked to his desk, and opened the drawer.

The scene in front of him stunned him for a moment, and then quickly flipped through the other drawers.

And in the few empty drawers, not to mention the manuscript paper clipped together with long tail clips, even the messy and unorganized manuscript papers are gone.

It seems that his office has really been broken into?

Someone took away the manuscript paper he put in the drawer, not only the theoretical results, but also some other manuscript papers were taken away.

Now the entire third drawer is clean, except for a few pens and a fresh stack of A4 paper, there is nothing left.

There is a prototype for this matter, Mr. Hua Luogenghua must be familiar to everyone, his manuscript was stolen, and it was stolen from the School of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences