This laboratory is an "industry" of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, but this kind of global research is certainly not just done by the Institute of Plasma Physics.

Lu Zhou had read the list of cooperative research units, and the names of those research units alone were enough to fill a page of A4 paper. If the principle of authorship of the paper here is the same as that of CERN, as long as everyone involved in the research has a share, I am afraid that the first few pages of the paper will have to be freed up for authorship.

However, compared with this large cooperative research group, the stellaroid as the object of study is much "smaller".

Following in the footsteps of Professor Kreber, Lu Zhou and Professor Kleezing came to the radiation isolation room, and finally saw the full picture of Spiral Stone 7-X.

Quietly located in the middle of the radiation isolation chamber, the stellaroid is about 3.5 meters high and 16 meters wide, and it looks like the "Millennium Falcon" of Han Solo, the captain of the smuggling cargo ship in "Star Wars".

It's just that it has just experienced a big war, and it is docked in the "Star Harbor" at the moment, and it can only be tinkered with by technicians.

Approaching the past, Lu Zhou could clearly see that equipment of various sizes was densely packed on the surface of the device, and countless cables spread from the equipment to all directions, seemingly tangled in a chaotic manner.

"This thing...... How much does it cost? ”

"More than a billion euros, supposedly." Looking at this device, Professor Ke Liqing, who was standing next to Lu Zhou, sighed with envy, "If the R&D cost is included, I'm afraid it's an astronomical amount." ”

The funding of the Institute of Plasma Physics is especially the envy of colleagues engaged in physics.

Obviously, it is also the Max Planck Society, and it is also the Institute of Physics, but the funding of the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics is much less than theirs.

I envy and envy, and Klitzing understands the situation.

After all, this kind of cooperative R&D project with the participation of many countries is not only funded by the German government, but also by countries around the world.

"Is it so expensive?"

Lu Zhou smacked his tongue.

Originally, he was still a little inflated thinking about whether to build a supercomputer to study and study, but now it seems that it is more realistic to build a supercomputer......

"Okay, don't care how much it is, the budget is not something we need to worry about," patting Lu Zhou on the shoulder, Professor Kreber said with a smile, "The final debugging has been completed, and the experiment will start soon, now let's go to the observation room." ”

……

Unlike at CERN, the Hadron Collider has always been operating at a depth of 100 meters, and unless a professionally qualified engineer has access to the pipeline.

Theoretical physicists are presented with nothing more than data on the screen and images that have been further processed.

Now, in front of Lu Zhou, in addition to the detectors connected to various parts of the stellar, he can even observe the situation inside the orbit with the naked eye through something similar to a camera.

In the observation room, all the staff are on standby.

"Track tightness test is normal!"

"Fill with shielding gas!"

"The shielding gas is filled, and the pressure measurement procedure begins!"

“……”

"When the critical temperature of superconductivity is reached, the circuit is fully charged!"

"Magnetic field operation confirmed normal!"

After listening to the reports of the research groups, Professor Kreber immediately gave the order to start the experiment.

"Ignition!"

When the magnet current reaches 15kA, the thyristor switches off quickly, and the magnet current is transferred to the first stage of the energy-dissipating resistor, generating a voltage of 2400V, which causes the gas in the vacuum chamber to be broken down, thus generating plasma.

Lu Zhou saw through the screen that a layer of reddish membranous substance formed a twisted ring in the twisted circular track.

To his surprise, the scene was quite beautiful.

“…… The temperature of these plasmas will exceed hundreds of millions of degrees after peaking, almost equivalent to the interior of a star. No material can stop this scorching energy, not even if you search the entire solar system. Standing in front of the screen and watching, Professor Clitzing whispered beside him.

Lu Zhou asked casually, "How did the stellar simulator do it?" ”

"Relying on distorted magnetic fields," explains Professor Klitzing, "we use magnetic fields to constrain them, confine them to a confined space, and keep them away from the inner walls of the orbit. But even so, it didn't last long......"

While the two were talking, the experiment had entered the most critical moment.

With the closing of the two-stage energy dissipation resistor and the thyristor, the voltage dropped to 1000V, and at the same time, the current rose to the peak, and the entire orbit was suddenly filled with scorching light, even Lu Zhou felt a little dazzling through the screen.

However, this light did not last long.

In less than six seconds, the light suddenly loosened and disappeared from the screen like a flame that had been extinguished.

The stellarator in operation gradually stopped, but the observation room was like boiling water, and it was quickly busy.

Standing not far from the two of them, Professor Kreber ordered the researchers in the observation room: "Collect data immediately, check the condition of the equipment, and act quickly!" ”

At the same time, the door of the anti-radiation isolation room opened, and the staff wearing radiation protection suits quickly walked into the isolation room with various tools and began to check the condition of the track from the physical level.

Looking at Professor Kreber who took off his hard hat, Lu Zhou was slightly stunned.

"That's the end of it?"

"That's right, it's over," said Professor Kreber with a smile as he dropped his helmet on the table and walked by, "and now it only disacts for a few seconds at a time, the longest I remember is about six seconds, and the shortest is only a few picoseconds." ”

Lu Zhou had a speechless expression.

“…… I thought it would be a little more amazing. ”

Professor Kreber grinned, "Theoretically, it could have been discharged for a longer time, but now that the deflector target plate has not been installed, too long a discharge time may cause excessive thermal load to damage the material of the first wall." In another two years, when the water-cooled deflector is installed, you will be able to try a 30-minute pulse discharge. ”

The discharge time here refers to the time that the basic magnetic field shape can be maintained in a single discharge, which is the so-called pulse time of a single discharge.

30 minutes was the goal set by the Spiral Stone 7-X at the beginning of its design.

If it can be done, the impact on the entire nuclear fusion project will undoubtedly be huge, and it will even affect the international community's choice of the mainstream technical route of nuclear fusion engineering.

After all, the mainstream choice is the tokamak device, but the tokamak device is stuck in a bottleneck in terms of discharge time.

At present, the longest discharge record is held at 102 seconds in Huaguo's "EAST", which almost marks the ceiling of the "discharge time" of the technical route of the tokamak device, and if you want to raise this ceiling by an inch, you must pay a high price.

Looking at this device, a thoughtful expression appeared on Lu Zhou's face.

Suddenly, a whimsical thought popped into his mind.

If the system were to price magnetic confinement fusion technology, how many credits would be needed for a mature stellar simulator drawing?

-

(I got up today and got a better cold, so I'll try to break out tomorrow, I can't go down like this.) In short, let's set a flag first...... ）