Mid-July.

At the Princeton Plasma PPPL National Laboratory in the United States, a modified NSTX unit is in operation.

The establishment of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory stemmed from the "Matterhorn Project," a top-secret Cold War program to control thermonuclear reactions.

In 1961, after the Matterhorn Project was declassified, the laboratory associated with the project was renamed the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

It is home to the world's largest medium-sized spherical tokamak magnetic confinement nuclear fusion device, the NSTX nuclear fusion experimental device.

The device can simulate high-temperature, high-density plasma conditions in the center of the sun to achieve fusion reactions under controlled conditions.

According to the investigation of the United States, although it is not clear what Professor Xu transformed the Germain ASDEX device into, he still obtained some information in general.

Judging from the information gathered, the spherical NSTX device on Princeton's side is the closest fusion device to the dawn fusion device modified by Professor Xu in Huaguo.

Coupled with the strong mathematical ability of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Professor Fefferman's research on the NS equation, the United States Energy has invested a large amount of scientific research funds in the pppl plasma laboratory.

Professor Charles Louis Fefferman of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Halifax Bruce, director of the PPPL Plasma Institute, stood together, looking at the various data on the control screen.

Next to them, there is also a middle-aged and elderly man in a suit and leather shoes, Dan Bruyette, the head of the United States.

Over time, the operating NSTX units gradually came to a halt.

"How's it going?"

As soon as the NSTX unit stopped working, Dan Bluyet asked impatiently.

Halifax Bruce shook his head and said, "It's not good, it's only been able to run for twenty-two minutes, and that's still when the first wall is damaged." ”

"Twenty-two minutes, why is the gap so big?" Dan Bluyet frowned and asked, "We've already invested more than a billion dollars in you, why don't we even have half of the record that Professor Xu set for the first time?" ”

If it had been two years ago, the NSTX fusion experiment had been able to run for 22 minutes, and both PPPL laboratories and energy plants would have jumped with joy.

Now, however, twenty-two minutes is too short.

"It's simple, because the numerical control model of the superconducting material and plasma turbulence is not perfect enough."

On the side, Feverman shrugged his shoulders and replied instead of Halifax Bruce: "If it weren't for your targeting of Professor Xu, with Princeton University's friendship with him, it would be no problem to buy a batch of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials." ”

Tuo Xuchuan's tossing in the field of controlled nuclear fusion, as well as the beginning of the dawn demonstration reactor project, these old men in the United States finally began to be anxious.

Capitol Hill money is finally starting to flow to the major controlled fusion agencies that have been abandoned, and the PPPL Plasma Laboratory in Princeton is one of them.

But even so, Feverman's complaints about this group of congressional veterans are still not small.

When the dawn was about to run a two-hour high-density plasma, he suggested to the PPPL Plasma Laboratory that he purchase a batch of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials for the modification of the NSTX nuclear fusion experimental device.

However, on the basis of the agreement of the PPPL laboratory, the material that was directly tossed by the energy department was gone.

Although they later purchased a batch of superconducting materials from other superconducting material manufacturers with much better performance than niobium-titanium alloys, they were still not as good as Dawn, and even inferior to the Spiral Stone 7X on the Germanic side.

While it is true that stellarators are better at controlling plasma than tokamak-like devices, the spherical bed apparatus also has its own advantages.

Opposite, Dan Bluyet frowned and said, "There is no need to talk about these things that have already passed." And it's your job how the mathematical model is optimized, I don't care how you do it, I just want to know, how far are we from the demonstration pile? ”

Halifax Bruce smiled bitterly: "No one knows this, there are too many problems to be solved from the experimental reactor to the demonstration reactor." ”

"The running time of high-temperature plasma, the problem of resistance to neutron irradiation of the first wall material, tritium self-sustaining, plasma magnetic surface tearing, and so on. These are troubles. ”

Dan Bluette took a deep breath and asked, "So why can Huaguo do it, but we can't?" ”

"Don't forget that two years ago, we were ahead of the curve in the field of controlled nuclear fusion, so where are you spending your time and money?"

"I need a specific time to account to Congress and citizens!"

Halifax quickly retorted: "It's impossible, it's simply not possible for us to break through so many problems in a short period of time." ”

"If Congress keeps funding for us, maybe in 2025, we can hopefully start building a demonstration reactor."

At the time of the debate at the PPPL plasma laboratory in Princeton, on the other side, Huaguo Jinling.

Xu Chuan is waiting for the results of the supercomputer center in his office, while dealing with matters related to the construction of the demonstration reactor.

After collecting data from the EAST for the liquid lithium molten salt breeder tritin system, he re-analyzed the data.

Judging from the data collected, this path is indeed correct.

Liquid lithium is formed as a molten salt material when it is mixed with materials such as silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, beryllium oxide, or silicon dioxide to create dispersed particles.

This new type of lithium molten salt material will be liquefied in a high temperature environment of nearly 1,500 degrees, but because of the loss of metal properties, it will not produce current, so it will not produce magnetic fields to interfere with the external confined magnetic field, and will not harm the control of plasma turbulence.

In addition, in the extraction process of tritium, hydrogen is used to replace tritium in the liquid lithium molten salt material, and the extraction of tritium is also quite smooth.

The only problem is that there are some problems with the intelligent calculation method he designed to increase the tritium clad tritium breed ratio of fusion reactors.

As a result, tritium is not formed as much as originally thought, and the use of neutrons is not so perfect.

However, when designing itself, Xu Chuan made a model through supercomputing and previous liquid lithium tritium self-sustaining experimental data, and it is normal for it to be imperfect.

Therefore, after coming back, Xu Chuan began to re-optimize this set of calculation methods, and then asked the Mathematical Physics Model Laboratory to rebuild a model for his optimized mathematical formula.

Now, we only need to wait for the results of the supercomputing center to come out, and we can almost determine whether the new model can be applied to the liquid lithium molten salt multiplication tritin system.

The black pen in his hand signed the acceptance report of a steam generator, and Xu Chuan opened another acceptance report.

With the construction of the nuclear industry group, the Daybreak demonstration reactor project has also begun to gradually come to an end.

This is a super project with the participation of more than 100 research institutes, companies and institutions, and even with the help of Gao Hongming and Peng Hongxi, he still has to deal with a lot of things every day.

For example, signing various completed equipment acceptance reports, coordinating the work of various departments, assigning project priorities, checking the progress of research projects, etc.

Just then, the red phone on the desk rang.

Xu Chuan casually touched the phone and connected it.

On the opposite side, the report of Director Pan Yuansheng, who is responsible for the management of the supercomputing center, sounded.

"Academician Xu, the supercomputing center has completed the verification of the new model of the liquid lithium molten salt multiplication tritin system, and the results have been sent to your mailbox through the intranet."

Xu Chuan clamped the phone, and the signature pen in his hand quickly signed his name on another document and replied at the same time: "Okay, I'm sorry for you." ”

After speaking, he hung up the phone without waiting for a polite word from the other side.

"Let me see how it goes."

After pushing the documents on the desk aside, Xu Chuan turned on the phone with some excitement in his eyes.

Rather than dealing with boring management work, he prefers to study some difficult problems.

After all, exploring the unknown is the only way to make progress.

In the mailbox, an email delivered from the confidential intranet fell into the star marking, Xu Chuan clicked on it and read it carefully.

As the long time passed, his eyes sparkled.

"It turns out that the principle of particle tracking and neutron-related parameters for Serpent-2 is modified, and the helium blowing carrier band technology is used to transform the tritium in the liquid lithium molten salt material."

Looking at the supercomputing data on the screen, the corners of Xu Chuan's mouth took a trace of arc, he found the problem, and also confirmed the optimization direction of the new model.

If there is no accident, the ignition time can be much earlier!

Originally, he planned to light the fire at the end of '21 or the first half of '22, but now it seems that the time may be at least a month or two earlier.

Thinking about it, he pulled out a stack of letter paper from a drawer.

It's time to surprise the above again!

PS: The second is to ask for a monthly pass.