Early October.

There is some bustle at the entrance of the base.

I saw that next to the construction site, several heavy trucks were parked there, and with the assistance of on-site construction personnel and lifting equipment, the unloading work was carefully completed.

Standing next to Lu Zhou, looking at the heavy equipment transported into the base, Xiao Le said with some emotion.

"It was supposed to be sold to ITER, but they probably won't buy it now."

The device in front of the two of them was the legendary ICRF heating antenna.

THIS DEVICE IS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING 3M OF ENERGY FROM TRANSMITTER, TRANSMISSION LINE, IMPEDANCE MATCHER, AND F, AND THE FREQUENCY CAN BE ADJUSTED BETWEEN 30-110MHZ.

As one of the key components on the fusion device, this thing can be said to be the second major black technology of the Luyang Institute of Physics in addition to the fully superconducting D-type section design.

In addition to being procured by General Atomics, the equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars has also received an order for the ITER demonstration reactor project.

But now it seems that the Europeans probably won't buy it.

After a pause, Xiao Le continued: "This equipment was originally planned to be disassembled 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, which can be said to be one of the most advanced plasma heating technologies in the world! ”

Lu Zhou nodded, looking at the device with interest.

Although the name is ICRF heating antenna, compared to the antenna antenna in his understanding, this thing is more like an air conditioner that has been magnified dozens of times.

The steel bracket under the whole device is not much different in shape from the steel bracket held under the air conditioner, and the protection limiter and current band protruding forward in the whole device are like the combination of the filter screen and fan blades of the air conditioner.

Further behind are tubular vacuum transmission lines, hydraulic drives, and critical vacuum feeds.

During the experiment, the protective limiter as the "air conditioning fan" is located at the front of the ICRF heating antenna, and together with the adjacent current band, it forms the plasma heating part and the "Faraday shielding box", which heats the plasma while isolating the plasma from the current band and preventing the electrostatic field from coupling into the plasma.

Since it faces the plasma directly in the vacuum chamber, 43 cooling pipes with an outer diameter of 10 mm are welded to it.

Although the whole installation looks complex and massive, lacking some sci-fi beauty, there is no superfluous design on the whole installation, and even every weld is carefully designed.

Therefore, it is also not easy to change these designs.

At this time, an old engineer with a hard hat and a gray coat came over, looked at Lu Zhou and said with a smile.

"How? This thing looks okay, right? ”

Hearing this, Lu Zhou smiled and said, "It looks quite reliable, but I hope it can operate normally on the stellarator." ”

The old engineer waved his hand: "Don't worry, even if it doesn't work now, I promise to make it work." ”

The old gentleman standing in front of Lu Zhou is named Li Jiangang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and also the vice president of the University of Science and Technology and the vice president of the Institute of Physical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Although the old gentleman studied ship power as an undergraduate, he somehow became a monk and studied plasma physics. Later, he caught up with the tide of major scientific projects in the Ninth Five-Year Plan, and the research of controllable fusion received more and more attention in China.

Before Huaguo withdrew from ITER, he was also a member of the Huaguo Expert Committee, and his contribution to the international recognition of ICRF heating antenna technology is also indispensable.

Now, Hua Guo has retired from ITER, and he has become an advisor to the National Fusion Energy Program Implementation Center, and is responsible for coordinating the work of the Luyang Institute of Physics in the demonstration reactor project – that is, the heating components of the entire demonstration reactor.

Xiao Le, who was standing next to Lu Zhou at the moment, was his student, and he recommended him.

For this big bull's assurance, Lu Zhou still believes very much.

"Then I'll trouble you, I'll briefly say a few requests."

Professor Li took out the notebook he was carrying, and he didn't talk nonsense.

"You say."

Lu Zhou nodded, recalled the details of the project that had been discussed in the previous meetings, and spoke.

"Corresponding to several different types of plasma in the stellar simulator discharge experiment, the heating antenna needs to be able to move in a radial direction with a range of minus 150 mm to plus 150 mm, with an adjustment accuracy of one millimeter. Can it be done? ”

Professor Li said without hesitation: "This is not a big problem. ”

Lu Zhou nodded and continued.

"The characteristic impedance of the natural vacuum feed, transmission line and other components meets the design requirements of 50Ω, and the permissible voltage of the inner and outer conductors is required to be 45KV."

"Both the current band and the Faraday shield need to be designed with independent cooling circuits, and their cooling capacity needs to be able to withstand thermal loads in the M/m² range."

"In addition, while considering the assembly and maintainability of the antenna, the welding part is minimized, and the total leakage rate of the antenna must be less than 10^-10Pa·m^3/s."

“……”

At first, it was okay, Academician Li's expression was quite relaxed, but listening to Lu Zhou's continuous words, his face gradually lost that relaxed smile, and he only felt a tingling of his scalp.

Then he said more than a dozen requests piecemeal, and Lu Zhou, who felt a little thirsty, took a sip of mineral water from Wang Peng's hand, threw the plastic bottle back, and then added a sentence later.

“…… That's the basics. I may be a little quick to say, and when the outline of the meeting is made in the evening, I will send you more specific requirements."

Hearing the latter sentence, Li Jiangang stopped the pen in his hand.

Staring at the notebook in his hand for a long time, his brows furrowed for a while, and finally squeezed out a forced smile on his face.

“…… You're really going to give us a problem, and the ITER project bidding conference in Europe doesn't have as much to do as you do. ”

Hearing this, Lu Zhou smiled faintly and said: "After all, it is the first reactor, and a good start can be a good demonstration, and I want to be as perfect as possible." ”

Although the system does not specify specific "acceptance criteria" for the DEMO reactor, there is no doubt that the task reward is proportional to the results. The more awesome this demonstration is, the higher the reward for the task.

Moreover, from a practical point of view, the stronger the performance of the demonstration reactor, the less resistance will be encountered in the technology promotion phase. From the perspective of a researcher, he also hopes that his research can be recognized by the country and the world.

Closing the notebook, Academician Li said: "Okay, when the matter here is dealt with tomorrow, I will go back to the institute for a meeting to study and study, and give you the results in two days." ”

Lu Zhou nodded: "Well, please." ”

……

The last work has been arranged, and the work on the side of the STAR-2 demonstration reactor base has basically been on the right track step by step, both on the project site and in the research institute.

The demonstration reactor is like a torch, illuminating the future of the entire nuclear fusion research in China.

Even in the absence of impassioned mobilization speeches, everyone working here has a strong sense of mission.

They're doing a great job.

Their research is already ahead of the world.

Up to now, under the leadership of the project leader, they have achieved countless phased results, achieved countless victories, and proved themselves countless times.

Moreover, everyone has no doubt that as long as Chief Designer Lu is there, they will continue to win until they cross the final finish line.

In such a work environment, it is difficult to generate negative emotions.

It can be said that even the chefs in the cafeteria are working with enthusiasm.

If the situation is optimistic, all the components will be completed by the end of the year.

As for whether it is before New Year's Day or before the Spring Festival, it depends on luck.

For Lu Zhou himself, there are only two things that he needs to solve now.

One thing is to go back to the STAR Stellarmimeter Research Institute on the Purple Mountain side and complete the final design of the liquid lithium neutron recovery system as soon as possible with the help of the STAR experimental reactor device.

Other people are so powerful, they can't hold back.

As the core component of the entire nuclear fusion reactor, it can be said that the design of this part directly determines the success or failure of the STAR-2 demonstration reactor project. If this part is completed, after the "plasma control technology", the second major difficulty of controlled fusion of "tritium retention" will also be overcome by him.

At the same time, this is also the last hurdle.

As for what units are used to generate electricity and what devices are used to generate heat, install "insurance" under the reactor...... And so on, these structures only determine whether the fruits of victory can be more perfect.

As for the other thing, it is to solve the problem of supercomputing algorithms.

At present, the plasma control of the STAR experimental reactor is completed with the assistance of Xiao Ai.

When the demonstration reactor is completed, he can't get Xiao Ai to the main control computer of the demonstration reactor, right?

After all, no matter from which point of view, Xiao Ai is not suitable for showing up in front of people, at least not for now.

Ideally, the algorithm associated with the plasma control scheme should be separated from its main program.

If the above two problems are solved, then all the "puzzle pieces" are assembled.

The completion of the demonstration reactor is just around the corner.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhou's heart couldn't help but feel a little hot.

Countless days and nights of hard work.

This day is finally going to be waited for by him.