The top student must be diligent.

Chapter 218 Materials! Materials!
Time passed slowly.

Although Xiao Yi believed that the tokamak device had serious problems, he still tried to conduct more simulations in this direction.

After all, no matter what, the tokamak device is currently considered by the academic community to be the most likely device to achieve controlled nuclear fusion. It does have considerable advantages. Its structure is simple - at least it is much simpler than fusion devices such as stellarators. It can also achieve strong confinement of plasma, etc.

Unless it is necessary, he will not completely abandon the tokamak.

To this end, he tried various tokamak structures including spherical tokamak, double-ring tokamak, D-shaped, and elliptical tokamak within a few days.

However, no matter how he changes it, the end result is pretty much the same.

Constraint is easy, extraction is difficult.

“Do we need to give up Tokamak in the end?”

Xiao Yi couldn't help but think of it in his mind.

After various thoughts, he finally began to change his mindset and temporarily turned his attention to the stellarator.

The stellarator is the most studied nuclear fusion device besides the tokamak. Its biggest drawback is that it requires very high manufacturing precision.

The name stellarator comes from the simulation of nuclear fusion inside stars. Its English name is Stellarator, which means stellar generator.

Unlike tokamaks, which rely primarily on toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields, stellarators use a series of twisted and deformed field coils to generate complex three-dimensional magnetic fields.

These twisted and deformed coils bring considerable difficulties to the production process.

After all, from the design purpose, these coils are needed to provide a sufficiently precise and stable magnetic field to achieve control of the internal high-temperature plasma.

However, if there is a slight deviation during the manufacturing process, and then under extreme conditions of hundreds of millions of degrees of temperature, it is very likely to cause severe damage to certain internal parts that are not desired to be worn, thereby reducing the life of the stellarator.

Even the possibility of accidents cannot be ruled out.

So far, no successful stellarator has been developed.

However, this doesn’t matter to Xiao Yi. He mainly wants to learn from the internal structure of this device anyway.

It is impossible to get the design drawings directly for a device like the Eastern Super Ring. However, it is not particularly troublesome for Xiao Yi. Based on some papers and information found on the Internet, he directly launched the Perfect Project and created one in his mind.

And so several days passed.

……

Time is gradually approaching the end of the year, and of course a lot of things have happened during this period.

In terms of the PDE Industrial Alliance, because Xiao Yi completed the proof of the NS equation under generalized conditions, more companies have become more optimistic about the prospects of the PDE Industrial Alliance. Therefore, it has once again attracted a considerable number of companies to join, among which the proportion of foreign companies has also increased.

The PDE Industrial Alliance can gradually be called an international organization.

On the other hand, the Joint Mathematics Meeting held in San Francisco, USA this year has also ended.

At this joint mathematics conference, quite a number of mathematicians were looking forward to seeing Xiao Yi's report on the proof of the NS equation, but unfortunately, they did not receive any relevant information until the day before the meeting.

Just when they were disappointed, they learned the news from the China University of Science and Technology that Xiao Yi would hold a report meeting on the proof of the NS equation in mid-March.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately attracted widespread attention in the academic community.

Although the description in the paper is detailed enough, people are still looking forward to Xiao Yi's report to provide more explanations to the academic community.

At that time, many mathematicians and mathematics enthusiasts from various countries who wanted to attend this conference bought tickets to China.

It just so happened that China now has a 144-hour visa-free policy, which means there are six days, enough time for them to attend a lecture or even travel here for a few days.

After learning about this incident, the governments of Huizhou Province and Feicheng City were extremely happy.

Are you kidding? How could they be so worthy as to be able to host such an international academic conference and even attract top mathematicians from all over the world?

In the past, such events were held in Shanghai, such as the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2002 and Xiao Yi’s previous report on the proof of the Goldbach conjecture.

They could only envy such an important academic conference from the sidelines.

Unexpectedly, they finally have such an opportunity now.

It seems that the rate of return on the money spent on Xiao Yi is still increasing!
Therefore, in order to welcome this important report meeting, the provincial government and the municipal government began to make relevant preparations.

This includes the preparation of the venue and how to welcome international mathematicians.

Of course, it is not just mathematicians who will be present. Mathematical physicists, fluid mechanics experts and other related researchers will not be absent from this lecture. Although they may not understand the mathematical proofs, this does not prevent them from learning about Xiao's space from Xiao Yi.

As we all know, Shaw space is the key to proving the NS equations. Similarly, using Shaw space to simulate fluids is also a recognized good method.

In short, the foreign tourists expected to come to China this time cover a relatively wide range, and most of them are highly educated. China needs such talents.

What if we can retain a few talented people?
It's hard for the staff who are responsible for preparing for this lecture.

The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and they still have to prepare for the report meeting which will start in March.

However, considering that this report was based on the proof of a world-class mathematical problem and was related to Xiao Yi, they did not feel so upset.

After all, it is a report meeting that brings honor to the Chinese people.

……

April 2024, 2.

Plasma Institute.

There are only four days left until New Year’s Eve on February 2th.

The Eastern Super Ring has also made all the preparations before ignition.
Xiao Yi was also invited on this day.

According to what Li Jiangan said before, he will be responsible for pressing the ignition button today to ignite the artificial sun.

control center.

"Vacuum team, report the current vacuum status."

Zhao Zhanyou held the walkie-talkie in his hand and asked into the room.

"The vacuum group is in place, and the pressure in the main reaction chamber is stabilized at 1.0*10^-6 Torr, which meets the experimental requirements." The leader of the vacuum group replied.

"Control Room Received. Magnetic Confinement Team, have you completed the status check of the magnetic field coils?"

"Still checking the magnetic field distribution map, will be done soon." The voice of the magnetic confinement group engineer came over the intercom.

"Boost."

Zhao Zhanyou said something, then he looked at Xiao Yi next to him and asked with a smile: "Professor Xiao, I heard that you will hold a lecture on the NS equation in March?"

Xiao Yi nodded and said, "Yes, March 3th."

"Tsk, I heard that the whole province is preparing for this." Zhao Zhanyou sighed: "It really deserves to be one of the seven major problems of the millennium. The momentum is so great."

Xiao Yi laughed: "When controlled nuclear fusion is realized, even the proof of the Riemann hypothesis may not be as good as it is."

Zhao Zhanyou shrugged and said, "These two things are more distant than each other."

He also did not forget to urge Xiao Yi to study nuclear fusion, so he took the opportunity to talk about it: "But Professor Xiao, if you come to help us study nuclear fusion first, maybe we can see such a day."

Xiao Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said, "Then why don't I study the Riemann hypothesis? After all, don't forget that I am a mathematician."

"Uh... that's true."

Zhao Zhanyou was stunned.

But at this moment, the voice of an engineer from the magnetic confinement group came over the intercom.

"Magnetic confinement team reports: All superconducting magnets are cooling down normally, the spiral magnetic field coils and toroidal magnetic field coils have reached the preset current intensity, and the magnetic field distribution map shows no abnormalities."

"Control room received!"

After hearing the report on the intercom, Zhao Zhanyou stopped chatting with Xiao Yi and became serious. He said to the intercom: "Plasma heating team, prepare to start the neutral beam injection and radio frequency heating system."

"The plasma heating group is ready, the neutral beam injector and RF heater are calibrated and awaiting the start command."

"Diagnostic team, verify that all sensors and detectors are functioning properly."

"Diagnostic team reports: All diagnostic equipment, including Thomson scatterers, interferometers, and flexible X-ray detectors, have passed testing and the data acquisition system is normal."

"Okay!" Zhao Zhanyou said, "Now that all teams are ready, I will hand over the command to Professor Xiao Yi."

Then he handed the walkie-talkie in his hand to Xiao Yi next to him.

"Ready to light the fire."

Xiao Yi nodded, took the intercom, and walked to the control console.

There is a switch on the console that controls the flow of electric current.

As long as this switch is pulled, a huge current will be quickly input into each coil, heating the interior.

The so-called input value in the nuclear fusion Q value refers to this part of the input current.

Xiao Yi took a deep breath. It was the first time for him to do such a thing, and he still felt a little excited.

Then, he said into the intercom: "Hello everyone, I am Xiao Yi, and I will be in charge of the command from now on." Voices from various groups responded over the intercom: "Hello, Professor Xiao! We are just waiting for your orders!"

Xiao Yi smiled, and then said: "Okay, all teams, pay attention, prepare to ignite, all personnel enter the highest alert state."

"The countdown begins now!"

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"..."

"1!"

"ignition!"

As Xiao Yi pulled down the gate, the lights in the entire control room dimmed, and all eyes were focused on the large screen in the center, which displayed real-time data of the plasma.

The voices of various groups were quickly heard over the intercom.

"The vacuum pump starts pumping air."

"The field coil is preheating and the current is rising to the set value."

"Begin neutral beam injection, and start the radio frequency heating system synchronously!"

On the screen, plasma gradually took shape and the temperature rose rapidly.

On the large central screen, the plasma electron density and temperature are also rising, approaching the expected ignition conditions.

About forty seconds later, the head of the diagnostic team spoke excitedly: "The plasma temperature has reached 1 million degrees!"

One hundred million degrees!

It basically meets the requirements of nuclear fusion reaction.

The reason why nuclear fusion requires high temperature is that at such high temperature, various particles have extremely high kinetic energy, which can overcome the strong interaction force between particles, causing them to collide with each other and produce a fusion reaction.

The higher the temperature, the stronger the kinetic energy of the particles, the higher the probability of collision, and the more intense the fusion reaction.

Of course, in reality, nuclear fusion will occur at tens of millions of degrees. For example, the core of the sun reaches 1500 million degrees. However, because there is still hundreds of billions of times the atmospheric pressure at the center of the sun, under this atmospheric pressure, the probability of nuclear fusion occurring is much higher.

As for the artificial sun, it is certainly not able to reach that condition in terms of air pressure. There is still a gap of several orders of magnitude. Moreover, even if it can be achieved, even from a safety perspective, it is estimated that no government would allow such a facility to be built within its territory.

Are you kidding? If we can really build a device that can produce pressure hundreds of billions of times the atmospheric pressure, it would really bring the sun to the earth. If it explodes, it would be like the sun exploding on earth.

Inside the East Super Ring.

As the temperature reached over 100 million degrees, the plasma density began to rise rapidly. Similarly, the nuclear fusion reaction also gradually became more intense.

A red line on the central big screen continued to rise, and everyone almost held their breath, waiting for the critical moment to arrive.

Until the above value exceeded 1.57×10^20/m^3, cheers rang out in the entire control room.

"The plasma density has exceeded the previous Greenwald limit! And the current plasma flow is still stable!"

"Brilliant!"

"Ness!"

"..."

Amid the cheers, Xiao Yi also smiled slightly, but his eyes were fixed on another screen next to him, which showed the real-time modeling of the internal plasma through an infrared detector.

It allows them to visually see the trajectory of the internal plasma flow.

Xiao Yi looked at the trajectory of the fluid above and started the perfect project. He simulated the trajectory processes in his mind and thought about how to utilize the energy under this trajectory.

But the final conclusion is that there is still no good way.

Wear remains a key issue, and the structure of the tokamak itself will make such wear even more serious.

“Materials are still the key…”

Xiao Yi narrowed his eyes.

"But simply solving the material problem is far from enough. Given the degree of wear and tear on the tokamak, it would be too serious."

"And the key problem is that it is not convenient to replace the worn inner wall material inside the tokamak."

"Therefore, a buffer zone needs to be added so that when the wall material inside the fusion device is replaced, the plasma flow can be controlled in the buffer zone and will not enter the power generation area."

"And there is also..."

Xiao Yi began to ponder in his mind.

"But the most important thing is the material!"

"If the first-wall material problem is not solved, nuclear fusion will only be achieved in 50 years!"

Materials! Materials!
Looking at everything in human development, materials are the eternal key issue.

The fantastic super technologies in science fiction works also require more advanced materials.

For example, the super-strong carbon nanotubes involved in space elevators.

Another example is the super-strong material needed for a Dyson sphere.

There are also room temperature superconductors and so on.

Even if it is not so sci-fi, the material technology required for spacecraft is also an ever-present problem.

But do those incredible-sounding materials really exist?
Xiao Yi even couldn't help but wonder in his heart, where are the aliens in the Fermi paradox?

Perhaps those aliens are also thinking about how far material technology can advance.

"The plasma density has exceeded 2×10^20/m^3!"

Another burst of excited voices rang out around him, waking Xiao Yi up.

A glance at the big screen showed that the number was quite close to 2.12.

He sighed and thought, forget it, why think so much?

Just focus on the present.

But no matter what, he was going to try to study the first wall material.

How far can the development of science and technology go? The first wall material may be able to provide a simple answer.

Success means that the road ahead is endless.

unsuccessful……

Let’s talk about it then.

But in short, he has now truly

"2.12! A new limit has been reached!"

The voice next to him reminded Xiao Yi.

He immediately picked up the intercom: "Okay, now start controlling the fuel injection and keep the plasma density stable at 2.12×10^20/m^3!"

"Yes!"

……

It lasted for about a hundred seconds.

This ignition experiment is over.

The final result is undoubtedly gratifying.

The first step was to complete a 150-second run at over million degrees.

This included a 1.6-second run at 39 million degrees.

In addition, the most important achievement is the verification of the new Greenwald limit.

At a density of 2.12×10^20/m^3, the plasma flow is still quite stable and very safe, which shows that under the same conditions, the energy output of nuclear fusion can be even higher!

As soon as the relevant news was released, it quickly topped the domestic hot search list.

Of course, Greenwald's verification of the new limit once again attracted the attention of the world.

However, compared with these good news, the Plasma Institute thinks that the better news is -

Xiao Yi decided to accept the invitation to become a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics and join in the research on controlled nuclear fusion!

(End of this chapter)