Kamikyo City.

In the studio of CTV's "Science Road", a show about controlled nuclear fusion is underway.

"Welcome to this issue of Science Road, I am the host Cheng Nan."

"In science fiction, film and television or literature, we always see descriptions of controlled nuclear fusion. And the word controlled nuclear fusion seems to condense all our fantasies about energy......"

"The theme of this episode is the energy source of the future that fascinates us - controlled nuclear fusion."

"To this end, we specially invited the director and chief engineer of the Huaguo International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program, academician Zhou Chengfu of the Southwest Institute of Physics, to explain the past and present of controlled nuclear fusion...... Everyone is welcome! ”

Bang Bang Bang ——!

Driven by the host, the audience at the scene applauded warmly.

walked from behind the curtain of the studio to the front of the stage, Zhou Chengfu, who had gray temples, nodded to the audience with a smile, and then sat on the sofa at the invitation of the host.

These days, he was holding a meeting in Beijing, and he happened to meet the invitation of the "Science Road" column group. Since he hasn't been very busy lately, he came over for a spin.

Although scientists and actors do not need such a thing as exposure, it is necessary for researchers who are working in future disciplines to be interviewed appropriately.

After all, with so much money spent, they have to let the public know what they have done and what their research can change.

"Those of you who are here may have heard that just a few months ago, the stellarite STAR device in Jinling City successfully completed an ignition experiment. Including this stellarator, including the magnetically confined HT-7 and EAST and other tokamak devices, as well as the inertial confinement of the divine light, and the recently proposed anti-field pinch, our country's scientific researchers have taken almost all the technical routes of controlled nuclear fusion research and are at the forefront of the world. ”

"Before the STAR installation, there was almost no research on stellarators in our country. I would like to ask Academician Zhou, what do you think of this first stellar simulator device in China? ”

Hearing this question, Zhou Chengfu smiled and said modestly: "It's too exaggerated to say that it is ignition, after all, tritium is very expensive, and before solving the two problems of tritium retention and plasma irradiation damage to the first wall material, we generally use hydrogen for experiments." ”

Moderator: "What do you know about the STAR device?" ”

Zhou Chengfu smiled faintly: "I don't know much, but I still understand." ”

Moderator: "Can you tell us about the features of this STAR device?" ”

Hearing this question, the corners of Zhou Chengfu's mouth opened a slight arc and said.

"If you want to talk about characteristics, as you said, it is probably the first stellar simulator in the real sense of the word."

"As for the prototype, you may not have heard of it, but I can tell you that it is actually a German EGA device. The unit was decommissioned in 2013 and has been in storage in Frankfurt, Germany, ever since. Later, when Professor Lu went to Germany to study, he probably took a fancy to it, so he lobbied in both countries and spent 500 million euros on research funds to buy it from the Germans. ”

The host had a surprised look on his face: "500 million euros? If you change it to RMB, it will be nearly 4 billion...... Is the research of controlled nuclear fusion so expensive? ”

The audience also showed surprised expressions.

4 billion!

Poverty limits their imagination.

Zhou Chengfu smiled, but he didn't feel much about the number he said.

"It depends on what you compare it to, it's definitely a lot more expensive than studying mathematics, but it's still slightly cheaper than the space station and the Hadron Collider."

Of course, it's hard to say how much this point is.

Host: "Do you think the STAR device will be able to replicate the 30-minute miracle created by Spiral Stone 7-X after Nirvana's rebirth?" ”

It seemed that he was not very satisfied with the word nirvana rebirth, Zhou Chengfu subconsciously frowned, but soon realized that this was in the show, so his brows stretched in an instant.

"30 minutes?" Shaking his head with a smile, Zhou Chengfuyun said lightly, "It's not easy to run continuously for two minutes." ”

The host looked at Zhou Chengfu with a look of surprise and continued to ask, "Aren't you optimistic about this STAR device?" ”

Hearing this question, Zhou Chengfu said eloquently: "It's not that I don't think it's a good problem, the reason why the Spiral Stone 7-X can complete the long-term plasma confinement of 30 minutes is mainly due to its special outfield coil design, and the most critical water-cooled deflector. ”

"This water-cooled deflector, although it is also available on the EGA unit, is more than 20 years old, and it is still far from the one that is now in service on the Spiral Stone. If the STAR Stellarator was to replicate the success of the Spiral Stone 7-X, he would at least have to innovate the cooling setup, but it was clear that he didn't. ”

This is not to say that he is foolish, but the success of the Spiral Stone in the 30-minute long confinement is mainly due to the water-cooled deflector, at least as the Germans claim to be.

And the latest design of the water-cooled deflector will naturally not appear on the EGA unit.

What's more, even if you don't look at these factors, it's been almost two months since the scientific review article came out, and there has been no movement at the STAR Stellarmimagnet Research Institute until now.

Now Zhou Chengfu can basically be sure, it's not that Lu Zhou doesn't want to refute him with facts, but the STAR device can't do it at all.

It is precisely because of this that when he says this, he has no pressure.

“…… At present, the mainstream of international controllable fusion research is still the tokamak, and then there is the inertial confinement of laser ignition, and the anti-field pinching that you just mentioned. ”

"Theoretically, every technical route can be taken, as long as we solve the various problems we face on this route, and the problems we will face, the final end point is the fusion energy we are pursuing. It's like a pickup truck and a car, both of which are four-wheeled, and as long as you pass the toll booth, you can still get on the highway. ”

Amused by this figurative metaphor, the audience smiled knowingly.

After a pause, Zhou Chengfu continued.

"The stellarator is too difficult to engineer, compared to the tokamak, the design is more concise, and the engineering implementation is relatively low."

"We don't have to try every technical route, instead of trying every possibility, we should focus our limited resources on the few directions that are most likely to be realized."

"This is a pragmatic choice rather than a random attempt!"

……

After the interview, recalling the applause in the studio before, Zhou Chengfu, who left the studio, was relaxed, and he only felt indescribably happy.

Although speaking on this kind of popular science program does not have much substantive effect, but thinking of the young man who is not a bird to him, his heart is relieved.

At that moment, the phone in his pocket rang suddenly.

When he took out his mobile phone, he saw that it was Jia Liangcai calling, so he pressed the connected button and put the mobile phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Zhou, Director Zhou!"

"What's the matter?" Hearing the panicked voice, Zhou Chengfu frowned.

"It's the STAR Institute!"

Zhou Chengfu said impatiently: "You give me a sentence to finish speaking, what happened to the STAR Research Institute." ”

"Just yesterday, they restarted the experiment!"

Hearing this, Zhou Chengfu's heart tightened, and he hurriedly asked.

"They restarted the experiment? Why haven't I heard anything about it? Tell me, what were the results of his experiments? Did you do it for thirty minutes? ”

Listening to this series of questions, Jia Liangcai showed a bitter smile on his face.

"It's not thirty minutes......

Hearing that it was not thirty minutes, Zhou Chengfu breathed a sigh of relief.

However, his breath has not yet been half relaxed, and he is destined to not be able to relax.

Jia Liangcai, who was on the other end of the phone, continued to speak in a bitter tone of disbelief.

“…… I saw a report in the Jinling Daily, they seem to have made the magnetic confinement time an hour......"