Chapter 1485: The Key to the Second Generation of Controllable Fusion
The reform of research funding had caused panic within East Asia Energy.
Half of the scientific research projects were cut, stricter funding approval…
Although this had not been implemented yet, everyone was worried that they would eventually fall.
But generally speaking, everyone’s mood was relatively stable.
Especially for those scientific researchers who worked diligently, Lu Zhou’s approach was a bit tough, even uncomfortable, but it was still quite popular.
To be honest, they had long been fed up with those leaders who relied on nepotism and had no abilities at all, relying on the power at hand to do whatever they wanted in the department.
As for whether the people who only collected paychecks were satisfied with the reforms…
Lu Zhou didn’t care.
In his opinion, East Asia Energy was already a dying giant. To cure its disease, it must be treated with a strong medicine.
Cleaning up the worms was only the first step.
The second step was to sweep out the people who only cared about the paychecks.
It was not that Lu Zhou was unkind. He didn’t mind having some bloated people in other positions. But as a scholar, he had zero tolerance for this kind of behavior in scientific researchers!
He knew exactly what it was like to devote all his life to scientific research yet not get any attention in the end, and in turn, to have one’s academic achievements stolen away.
As long as he sat in the position of chairman, he would definitely not allow such injustice to happen under his nose!
Besides, he didn’t expect those b*stards to be able to help him with the engineering of the second-generation controlled fusion.
If they didn’t want to work hard, they should go home.
…
After the meeting, Lu Zhou, who had arranged the work of various departments, immediately invested in the research of the second-generation controllable fusion technology.
Although he did not particularly understand the rules of this era, doing scientific research was always the same.
Choose a general direction, then through constant trial and error, find a feasible path. From the standpoint of a chief designer, what he needed to do was to plan the framework of the entire large-scale scientific research project, choose several technical routes with the highest probability of success, then formulate strategic directions for academic leaders in various fields. He had to do everything possible to reduce the number of trials and errors, as well as time costs.
The three problems currently faced by the second-generation controllable fusion technology were basically the same as those he faced in the first-generation controllable fusion technology.
The only difference was that the difficulty was different.
The scattering cross-section of deuterium and helium-3 was much smaller than that of deuterium-tritium. The cross-section of the former was only 0.8b at 300 keV, which was much smaller than the latter, so more energy input was required and the fusion conditions were more severe.
The same fusion reactor could realize the DT reaction, the temperature of the deuterium-tritium reaction, at only 100 million degrees.
However, if someone wanted to make a fusion reaction between deuterium and helium and keep the reaction stable, the temperature required was a few billion degrees.
Temperature was just one element.
There was also density and constraint time; these three were indispensable.
According to the literature that Lu Zhou consulted, so far, the core problems faced by the second generation of controllable fusion were mainly concentrated in reaction temperature.
Especially how to confine and compress the high-temperature plasma in a very small area.
The strength of the magnetic field required to achieve this was a terrifying number.
However, despite so many difficulties, Lu Zhou did not feel that this was an unsolvable problem.
When he was designing the first generation of controllable fusion reactor cores, he was also troubled by the same problem. The situation at that time was not more optimistic than it was now. Many key technologies, including computational materials science, were in an emerging stage; some were even at the conceptual stage.
However, in that era, he still brought a group of outstanding engineers and scholars to complete a miracle in the history of human science.
Since he could do it in the past, he had reason to believe that, in the future, with the more advanced science and technology, he would be able to accomplish this miracle once again!
Office of the Chairman.
Tang Yunge, who came to the building for a report, was standing at the desk with a nervous expression. As he looked at the great man from a hundred years ago, his heart was filled with anxiety and curiosity.
In the morning, he received an email from Academician Lu.
In the email, Academician Lu offered him an invitation, hoping that he would come to the building to discuss with him about the second-generation controllable nuclear fusion project.
Strictly speaking, Tang Yunge was not studying second-generation controllable fusion. His role was just as a senior researcher in the electromagnet research laboratory. His usual job was to hold meetings, research, and design a magnetic field container for East Asia Energy reactors.
He really didn’t understand why Academician Lu wanted to see a n.o.body like him.
Just when he was hesitant to say h.e.l.lo to him, Lu Zhou, who was sitting behind his desk, spoke concisely.
“Please sit.”
“Thank you.”
Lu Zhou looked at Tang Yunge, who was sitting on the sofa. He went straight to the point.
“I have read your paper. In the area of electromagnet research, you have put forward a lot of interesting design concepts and ideas. I was impressed with many of them.”
After receiving the compliment from Academician Lu, Tang Yunge couldn’t help but feel a little proud, but he still said modestly, “You’re too kind, those research results are not from me alone.”
“No matter who is responsible for it, it’s not from Liu Siha.”
Lu Zhou paused for a while and continued, “According to my calculation results, I need a magnetic field capable of generating 10,000T in a small s.p.a.ce to confine the high-temperature plasma in the reactor core.
“Can it be done?”
“Almost… impossible,” Tang Yunge said with an embarra.s.sed expression on his face. “With East Asia Energy’s current technical reserves, we can make the strongest electromagnet with a magnetic field strength of just over 5,000T. The sustainable time is less than 50 milliseconds, and it cannot be used to power the core. As for 10,000T… This is too ridiculous.”
What did 10,000T mean?
To put it intuitively, the MRI machine used in general hospitals was about 3T, and 13T could make a frog float in the air.
Most people simply couldn’t imagine what a terrifying force 10,000 Tesla was.
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows slightly and said, “There is no hope at all?”
After making eye contact with Lu Zhou, Tang Yunge prepared to give an affirmative answer, but at this moment, there was a slight hesitation in his eyes.
Is there really no hope at all?
Not quite.
But East Asia Energy…
Has no hope.
After hesitating for a while, Tang Yunge finally took a deep breath, clenched his teeth, and spoke.
“It’s not that there is no hope at all… But the current situation of the electromagnet research laboratory is looking grim!”
“Oh?” Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows, looked at him, and asked, “It seems you have something to say.”
Tang Yunge gave a wry smile. He was about to speak out about the problems of the electromagnet research laboratory.
However, outside the chairman’s office, rus.h.i.+ng footsteps were heard.
There were two knocks on the door, then the door was pushed open.
Lu Zhou’s office secretary anxiously appeared at the door.
“Lu, Academician Lu, not good!”
Lu Zhou looked at the office secretary standing at the door of the office. He frowned slightly.
“What’s going on?”
With an anxious expression on his face, the secretary couldn’t even catch his breath. He said nervously, “The electromagnet research laboratory!
“They are on a strike!”