Before returning to the college entrance examination, I became popular in the science circle

"Yes, I am more optimistic about the future development of stellarator than tokamak!" Although the research and development of stellarator technology is much more difficult than tokamak, and not as good as tokamak, now we have quite rich experience. Reliance is almost just a concept and needs to be started from scratch.But equally, proportionally, there will be greater potential for future application development and technology upgrades.

Although the current international mainstream of controllable nuclear fusion is tokamak, according to the information Wu Tong has learned, the tokamak device has already fallen into a bottleneck even if it takes a little longer. The progress is still measured in seconds. Because of the difficulties, there is almost no hope of success!

The current longest discharge record is held by Huake’s “EAST” of 102 seconds. This almost marks the ceiling of the “discharge time” of the tokamak device technology. We want to raise this record by one second. , must pay a high price.

The future prospects of controllable nuclear fusion are undoubtedly very broad.However, just like the darkness before dawn, this darkness is too long!

The current progress of the ITER project is not optimistic. The annual use of funds exceeds the standard in units of [-] million. However, the progress of the project has not made extraordinary progress. Governments including those across the country have gradually lost patience.
"We see the same thing. I'm also very interested in the stellarator!" Lu Xiao nodded affirmatively. Even if Wu Tong couldn't see it, he still knew that he had considered the stellarator. Otherwise, Wu Tong wouldn't have just commented. , he could immediately think of the stellarator.Of course, before, he was more understood as a supplementary field of imagination for engine fighters.

"Controllable nuclear fusion is a systemic problem, tokamak and stellarator, magnetic constraints and inertial constraints... Under the premise of completing all this, we still have to return to the progress of materials and engineering. Stellarizer devices have one point A better place than Tokamak.

The advantage in the design concept of the tokamak device is that fortunately, we do not need to use an ohmic transformer to start the plasma current like the tokamak device, nor do we need to consider twisted films, magnetic surface tearing, and resistive wall films... question! "

"This transfers the difficulty to the engineering and materials!" Lu Xiao said with a smile, but similarly, if they take the path of stellarator devices, this is also their strength, especially Wu Tong's strength!

"We need a larger electromagnetic field to complete the magnetic confinement of the plasma and effectively control the magnetic field. Therefore, we need a method that can achieve superconducting at normal temperatures, or at least under less extreme conditions. materials so that we can create larger controllable magnetic fields to confine the plasma!"

Plasma confinement is a technology that confines plasma to a certain area and prevents it from scattering.

The particles in the plasma have kinetic energy, and they will move around and scatter. Some particles can also bombard the walls of the vacuum chamber, causing the number of plasma particles and their energy to be lost.

When particles hit the material on the vacuum chamber wall, they will be sputtered into the plasma area, causing the plasma energy to be lost in the form of radiation, causing the temperature of the plasma to decrease.

In order to reduce the number of particles and energy loss in the plasma, the characteristic of "field" energy transfer interaction can be used to constrain the plasma.Fields can be magnetic fields, electric fields, or gravitational fields.Thermonuclear fusion reactions in the sun and other stars rely on gravitational fields to constrain plasma.The masses of these stars are very large, and their gravity is also very strong, which is enough to restrain the plasma together and carry out thermonuclear reactions.

However, it is impossible to constrain the high-temperature plasma on the earth by weak gravity and make it undergo thermonuclear reactions. Other constraint methods must be used.

The main methods of confining plasma in thermonuclear fusion research are magnetic confinement and inertial confinement.Tokamak devices and stellarator devices both use magnetic confinement to reduce the loss of plasma particles and energy.

In controllable nuclear fusion and fusion reactions, the temperature and motion of the plasma start in billions of units. Therefore, they need a larger and more controllable magnetic field to constrain the fusion reaction and plasma to make it change. Controllable, which is also one of the important cores of the entire controllable nuclear fusion.

"Water coolers, plasma confinement, superconducting materials, and wall materials that can withstand the high temperatures at the start of fusion reactions... are all technical fields that we must break through!" Wu Tong came out one by one, walking through the stellarator device , they need to overcome those difficulties, and what they want to take is a pioneering path. Currently, the international community, including domestically, cannot give them too much experience, especially now that Tokamak has reached its ceiling.

"Water-cooler design and plasma confinement, I have started to conduct special research in the past two days. I have some experience in this area!" Lu Xiao picked up the areas he was good at and took over.He does the preliminary design, and finally optimizes it with Wu Tong, making sure to overcome these two major difficulties!

"Superconducting materials, as well as reactor wall materials, these are all up to you!" The materials section has always been Wu Tong's specialty!He couldn't help but sigh: "If we can have room-temperature superconducting materials, not only can we control nuclear fusion, but other energy problems can also be easily solved!"

Thermal power plants can be built anywhere, but green power plants that use renewable energy must choose their sites carefully, because only on the plateau can there be strong winds, and in the desert can you get long sunlight, and there are also controllable nuclear fusion that is overcoming difficulties. ··· Therefore, one of the biggest challenges in the transition to green energy is how to transport power from remote places to cities across hundreds of kilometers.

State-of-the-art superconducting cables can transport electrical energy over thousands of kilometers with only a few percent loss.But the trouble is that the cable must always be immersed in liquid nitrogen at 77K (about -196°C).Therefore, if such a cable is to be erected, pumps and cooling equipment must be installed every 1000 meters or so, which greatly increases the cost and complexity of the superconducting cable solution.

Superconductors that can operate at normal temperatures and pressures will make the dream of global power supply a reality.

Room-temperature superconductivity has always been the most difficult problem currently pursued by superconductors.Just mentioning it is a topic that gives many superconducting people headaches and heartbreak!
Wu Tong wrote down room temperature superconductivity on his notepad. This is a difficulty that must be overcome!If they can achieve room-temperature superconducting material breakthroughs and magnetic field constraints, they will surely be able to break through the current dilemma and truly bring controllable nuclear fusion into the research and development process. This is the first thing that must be overcome.At the same time, we need to make two preparations: how to make better use of superconducting materials and increase the strength of artificial magnetic fields from an engineering perspective! (End of chapter)