These days, Lu Zhou is basically in meetings.

Among them, there are internal meetings of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, meetings of the STAR Stellar Simulator Research Institute, and meetings held by partner units......

He already has a rough blueprint in mind for how to realize a controllable fusion reactor, but he can't achieve this blueprint alone.

As the person in charge and chief designer of this large-scale scientific research project, he must divide this huge project into small parts, and then assign them to the right people, and pick out the difficult parts separately and concentrate on solving them.

For example, topics such as "tritium recovery and deuterium-tritium fuel supply in plasma ash exhaust" and "tritium safety and tolerance" can be seen from the literature that similar studies have been carried out by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Therefore, he naturally does not need to do these repetitive research work, but only needs to let the people or institutions engaged in this field of research get enough project funds, continue to study in depth, and find a way to use it in the design of the stellarumer.

As for the difficult topics such as "the first wall cladding material", "anti-neutron irradiation material", "tritium extraction in the proliferation cladding", "and tritium retention", Lu Zhou left it to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, and he personally led the team to overcome it.

The third day after the start of the project.

At the STAR Stellarum Research Institute, Lu Zhou met with a working group sent by Huaguo Nuclear Industry Construction Group.

The team was led by Academician Wang Zengguang, chief engineer of the Nuclear Industry Group, who has worked in the nuclear industry for many years and has rich experience in the design of fission reactors and nuclear power generation units.

Although the experience accumulated in fission reactors may not be fully applicable to fusion reactors, they are both nuclear power, and there are similarities between the two sides.

For example, in the design of the generator set.

On how to convert the thermal energy generated by the reactor into electricity, the old academician brought a design sketch.

Drawing on the design of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, this device can also be used for nuclear fusion power generation.

However, after a brief glance at the sketch, Lu Zhou put it down.

"It's rare to make such advanced technology, and it would be a bit wasteful to continue boiling water."

Academician Wang: "But you can't deny that boiling water is still the most efficient way. ”

Lu Zhou shook his head: "Not necessarily." ”

Academician Wang did not speak, but waited for the landing boat to continue.

However, Lu Zhou did not give any explanation, just took a piece of A4 paper and spread it out on the table, then picked up a ballpoint pen and drew a sketch on it.

With the engineering level reaching LV4, after a period of adaptation, he finally gradually realized the ability improvement effect brought by the engineering level.

If the mathematics level strengthens the learning of mathematical knowledge, the sensitivity to numbers, and the ability to calculate, then the engineering level not only improves the absorption of engineering knowledge, but also further strengthens the ability to concretize abstract concepts into words that can be described with words, graphics, numbers, and other tools.

Like now.

Although he has not trained his drawing skills professionally, and has only read relevant books, the muscles of his arms seem to have memorized these movements, and even if he makes a stroke casually, it is as standard as a ruler and a ruler.

Looking at Lu Zhou's drawing movements, Academician Wang narrowed his eyes, and a look of surprise flashed in his pupils.

"You also studied mechanical drawing?"

"No," he smiled faintly, and Lu Zhou said casually, "Maybe when I was studying geometric problems, I drew more pictures." ”

Hearing this explanation, Academician Wang had a look of disbelief on his face.

Although he had never studied math problems, even if he thought about it with his feet, engineering drawing was not the same thing as mathematical drawing.

It is impossible to do this skillful stroke without three or five years of experience.

Believe it or not, there is no need for Lu Zhou to make any explanations on such inconsequential matters, just focus on the work at hand wholeheartedly.

First, the outline of the stellar simulator was simply outlined with lines, and then the structure of the generator set was simply outlined on this basis.

Staring at the more and more lines on the picture, which became clearer and clearer, Academician Wang gradually saw some doorways, and raised his eyebrows with interest.

"Ferrofluid power generation?"

"That's right," Lu Zhou looked at the sketch and nodded with satisfaction, "With my level, I can only draw to this extent, and I have to trouble you experts for the specific design." ”

Like controlled fusion, magnetofluid power generation is not a particularly new concept, and it can even be said that it has a long history.

Even from the timeline, this concept was first proposed together with the "gas-steam turbine combined cycle technology (GTCC)".

In the 80s of the last century, magnetohydroelectric power generation technology was even included in the key project of the 863 Program, and in terms of importance, it was placed in a position alongside nuclear fission power generation technology.

Considering that the full name of the 863 Program is "Suggestions on Tracking the World's Strategic High-tech Development", the tracked projects were basically the popular research directions in the international academic circles at that time, so it is not difficult to see that in the international academic circles at that time, the ferrohydroelectric power generation technology can be said to be a hot topic.

However, as we entered the second half of the twentieth century, the situation changed.

The aerospace and arms race has led to the rapid development of engine technology and gas application technology, and GTCC technology has learned a lot of experience from it, and finally realized the counterattack of overtaking in corners.

In contrast, although ferrofluid technology has a seemingly more attractive prospect, it is difficult to achieve due to technical reasons, the economic benefits cannot keep up with the market demand, and it has not been able to produce decent results for decades, so that it has gradually been abandoned by the mainstream of academia and industry.

Staring at this sketch, Academician Wang shook his head: "With all due respect, the ferrofluid power generation technology is not perfect, and it may not be a suitable choice to use it to generate electricity." Today's nuclear fission reactors are mainly pressurized water reactors, and I have never heard of a nuclear power plant that uses magnetofluid power generation technology to export electricity. ”

As if expecting Academician Wang to say this, Lu Zhou smiled and continued

"That's true for nuclear fission, but not necessarily for fusion."

"Oh?" An expression of surprise appeared on Academician Wang's face, and he turned his inquiring gaze to Lu Zhou, "What do you say?" ”

Lu Zhou: "The difficulty of magnetofluid power generation technology is nothing more than the part of gas ionization. It is usually difficult to heat the gas to a high temperature of 2000 degrees Celsius and form a plasma beam, and even if it does, this process is likely to be accompanied by a large amount of heat loss, so it is difficult to achieve a cycle efficiency of more than 20% in magnetofluid power generation technology...... Am I right? ”

Academician Wang nodded and agreed: "It's basically like this. ”

While there are other problems, this is undoubtedly the main one.

There are many laboratories that can do it, both coal-fired and fuel-fueled, but almost no one can achieve an energy conversion efficiency of more than 20%.

But if it's nuclear fusion......

"If it is nuclear fusion, we don't have this problem at all," looking at Academician Wang's inquiring expression, Lu Zhou smiled and continued, "After all, the nuclear waste produced by DT fusion itself is hundreds of millions of degrees of helium. ”

Hearing this, Academician Wang's expression was slightly moved, and he immediately looked at the sketch again and reacted quickly.

As we all know, the principle of ferrofluid power generation is to heat the gas that is easy to ionize to a high temperature of 2000 degrees, ionize it into a conductive plasma beam, and when it flows at high speed in the magnetic field, it cuts the magnetic field lines and generates induced electromotive force.

The helium generated by the "D+T" fusion reaction in the stellarator itself exists in the form of plasma with a high temperature of more than 100 million degrees!

In other words, they don't have to spend more energy heating the ionized gas, they just need to use the plasma, which carries a huge amount of energy!

Although this technology is undoubtedly used in coal-burning, oil-fired and even nuclear fission power generation, it is simply tailor-made for nuclear fusion power generation!

Rather, boiling water with those high-temperature plasmas is a waste.

Thinking of this, Academician Wang, who was staring at the sketch, gradually had an excited look in his eyes.

Raising his head again to look at Lu Zhou, he spoke in a cautious tone.

"There's a point in what you're saying...... Theoretically, it seems achievable, but I can't give you an exact answer right now, and I need to go back and talk to the other experts in the group. ”

Then he looked at the sketch again.

"Can I take this sketch back with me?"

"Of course," Lu Zhou nodded happily, "I look forward to your good news." ”