The leaders of Jinling City left and took Gao Hongming with them to discuss the settlement of controllable nuclear fusion.
Xu Chuan and Peng Hongxi were the only two people left in the huge villa.
"I didn't expect you to solve the nuclear waste problem so quickly." Peng Hongxi sighed while holding the teacup and taking a sip.
When the young man in front of him invited him to join the project last year, he never thought that such a large-scale project could be completed in one year.
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "I'm just lucky. If you choose the right direction, your research will naturally be faster."
Peng Hongxi shook his head slightly and said: "Without strength, there is no luck. I have seen your plan to solve the energy level and stability of the linear particle accelerator. If you don't have a deep understanding of physics, you would not be able to come up with this." solutions.”
After a pause, he continued: "Let's not talk about this anymore, let's talk about controllable nuclear fusion."
"I heard that this controllable nuclear fusion project is independent and you are responsible for it. So, have you considered the route of controllable nuclear fusion? Which one are you going to take, magnetic confinement? Or the inertial confinement method?"
Magnetic confinement and inertial confinement are currently the two mainstream international routes for research on controllable nuclear fusion. Of these two routes, the United States is more optimistic about inertial confinement and has gone relatively far on it. China, on the other hand, has placed its bets on the magnetic constraint route and will go further on this.
Xu Chuan thought for a while and said: "Compared with inertial constraints, I am more optimistic about magnetic constraints."
"How do you say it?" Peng Hongxi asked with interest.
Xu Chuan pondered for a moment and then said: "Inertial confinement does not use magnetic fields to control fusion plasma, but uses shock waves to compress it to the huge density required for fusion. The plasma only maintains its shape for a moment through inertia, and then expands and expands. Release energy.”
"Compared to magnetic constraint, inertial constraint has a fatal shortcoming. The current laser energy enhancement is destined to only emit the laser once every few hours and cannot generate sustained and stable energy. It is difficult to commercialize. And the real output energy is far lower than the input energy.”
"And how to increase the central pressure within the fuel hot spot to billions of times the atmospheric pressure is one of the keys to achieving commercially viable nuclear fusion."
"If these two points are not resolved, it can be said that the commercialization of power generation in terms of inertial constraints is far away. In comparison, even magnetic constraints have some problems, but I am still more optimistic."
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"Then are you going to study tokamak or stellarator?" Peng Hongxi asked.
Xu Chuan shook his head and said: "None of them."
"Huh?" Peng Hongxi cast a doubtful look at the young man sitting opposite him.
Xu Chuan leaned back on the sofa with a relaxed smile on his face: "Both the tokamak and the stellarator have their own shortcomings."
"Tokamak is currently the more mainstream magnetic confinement method. It has the advantages of producing very little waste in the reaction and good reproducibility. However, there are still technical difficulties, such as how to stabilize the plasma confinement."
"Although stellarators have innate advantages in energy confinement and can constrain plasma far better than tokamak, the constraint performance of stellarators is far lower than that of tokamak, and it is currently unable to do so. to achieve precise quasi-symmetry. This means that any small violation of symmetry can lead to significant enhancements in neoclassical transmission."
Peng Hongxi asked curiously: "What is your choice?"
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Multiple magnetic mirror tight hoop ring control."
"Multiple magnetic mirror tight ring control?" Peng Hongxi repeated, with some confusion in his eyes. He has been doing nuclear fusion for so many years, and this is the first time he has heard of this term.
Of course, judging from the name, he could probably understand what it was. It's just that this device seems to have no precedent, which is equivalent to starting from nothing. Not to mention the difficulty. Controllable nuclear fusion itself is a super difficult problem. If we start from scratch, God knows how long it will take before we can achieve such results.
Xu Chuan nodded, his eyes a little wandering, as if he was caught in memories or other things, but this did not delay his communication with Peng Hongxi.
"Although tokamak and stellarator have developed into two almost completely different fusion devices, if you put aside the differences such as shape, they are actually based on the principle of magnetic confinement."
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"The advantage of the stellarator is that it can directly generate a twisted ring-shaped magnetic cage through an external coil, thereby enhancing the confinement of the plasma, but the tokamak cannot do it because its own structure cannot do it."
"But what if parts of the two are combined to create a new fusion device?"
"The multi-magnetic mirror tightening ring control device is a new device conceived based on this concept. It is further optimized on the tokamak device and the stellarator device, and is combined with part of the design of the spherical bed. A new thing.”
After a pause, Xu Chuan regained his attention from his distraction, smiled at Peng Hongxi, and added in passing: "Of course, it only exists in my mind at the moment."
Indeed, the multi-magnetic mirror tight ring control device only exists in his mind at present, but it will not be in the future.
While at Princeton in his previous life, he received support to modify the Spherical Torus Experimental Magnetic Fusion Facility (NSTX-U) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
The modified NSTX-U was upgraded to NSTX-UX1, and NSTX-UX1 achieved fusion reaction control for up to thirty minutes.
He was fully involved in this project, so he had full confidence in how to adjust the fusion equipment.
Of course, NSTX-UX1 is optimized based on room temperature superconducting materials, so before that, he has to get the superconducting materials first.
Across the way, after listening to Xu Chuan's explanation, Peng Hongxi couldn't help but frown.
"I don't know what the fusion device you are conceived is like, but I have to remind you that devices with complex and twisted shapes are most likely not suitable for controllable nuclear fusion. The plasma turbulence in the internal chamber is not that good. Controlled.”
Peng Hongxi felt that Xu Chuan was a little too whimsical, maybe because he was too young, and he had solved all the problems smoothly along the way, so that his thoughts on controllable nuclear fusion were so jumping.
Of course, he has such qualifications.
At the age of 21, he won the two top awards, the Nobel Prize and the Fields Medal. Coupled with his research on nuclear waste, it would be unreasonable to say that he is the first person in the Chinese scientific community or even the world's scientific community. Pass.
Just combine the tokamak and the stellarator, and then intercept the spherical bed and fuse them together to make a new fusion reactor device. I don’t know if this idea will come up in the future, but it is definitely unprecedented.
For various reasons, he had to at least remind him that controllable nuclear fusion is not that easy to solve.
He did not want to see the young man in front of him squandering the country's resources and money because of his own ideas.
Perhaps this is indeed a feasible path, but judging from his decades of experience in controllable nuclear fusion, not to mention that it cannot be realized, even if it can be realized, trial and error on a completely new path will probably cost countless funds.
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "What if I have a way to solve and control the plasma turbulence in the reactor chamber?"
"This is impossible!" Peng Hongxi retorted without thinking, but then he froze, his eyes staring at Xu Chuan for a moment, and his breathing became heavy involuntarily.
He suddenly remembered that the person in front of him had advanced the NS equation to a whole new level in the first half of the year, and the proof paper had been published in the "Annals of Mathematics".
This result is being studied by the mathematics community, physics community and even the industrial community. It can be said to be the hottest emerging field in the current scientific field, because it solves problems in the field of fluid mechanics and is of great help to the development of science and technology.
But when it comes to who is the absolute top in this field, probably no one can beat this young man who has pushed the NS equation to a new level.
"Have you found a way to control plasma turbulence?" Peng Hongxi asked in disbelief, breathing heavily and trembling slightly.
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Theoretically, I did find a way to model plasma turbulence. The results I just made not long ago have not been made public yet. Do you want to take a look?"
"Where? Of course."
Peng Hongxi quickly asked. If he hadn't forcibly controlled himself to sit on the sofa, he would have stood up directly. In this case, he kept leaning forward, seemingly getting closer and seeing the solution. As close as possible.
Just as Xu Chuan was about to get up and go to the study to get manuscript paper, he patted his head. His previous research was still at Nanjing University. In the past two days, he had not been able to get it back because he had to deal with issues such as site selection for controllable nuclear fusion.
"The manuscript paper is over there in the NTU office. I'll call my student and ask him to deliver it. It should be delivered in ten minutes." Xu Chuan smiled sheepishly, took out his cell phone from his pocket and called Gu Bing. Telephone.
"Hey, Gu Bing, are you in the office?" Xu Chuan asked quickly after dialing the phone.
"Yes, Professor. What's the matter?" Gu Bing quickly replied.
"There is a piece of manuscript paper clipped together in a binder clip in the drawer of my desk. Please help me deliver it to my villa."
"Okay, wait a minute." Gu Bing responded on the phone, got up and walked towards the instructor's desk.
After rummaging through the drawer, Gu Bing's confused voice came from the phone: "Professor, are you sure it's in the drawer? I looked in the three drawers, and there are no manuscript papers in them that you said were added with clips. There are only Some unused A4s and pens? ”
"No? No, I remember putting it in the drawer." Xu Chuan had a question mark on his face. Did he remember it correctly?
When I was modeling plasma turbulence before, because I needed to use those theoretical foundations, I just clipped it with a clip and put it in a drawer for easy access.
"Really not, Professor, did you take it back?" Gu Bing replied affirmatively. He searched through the three layers of the drawer in front of him, but he didn't see the manuscript paper the instructor mentioned.
"That's weird, okay, I understand." Xu Chuan responded and hung up the phone.
"What's wrong?" On the opposite side, Peng Hongxi asked quickly after seeing Xu Chuan hang up the phone.
"The manuscript paper I put in the office seems to be missing. Maybe I brought it back here?"
Xu Chuan replied uncertainly, got up and walked towards the study.
He obviously remembered it correctly, could it be possible that he really brought it back?
Usually he does research either in the study room of his villa or in his office at NTU.
After the nuclear waste project was completed, I spent more time at NTU some time ago because I had to make up for the classes I had not taken at NTU.
It didn't make much difference to him. Anyway, there was an independent office at Nanjing University. Except for the two students Gu Bing and Amelia, there was no one else.
"The manuscript paper is missing?" Peng Hongxi looked at Xu Chuan in confusion. The first thought in his mind was such a coincidence? After all, both of them were talking about this just now.
Xu Chuan: "Maybe I brought it back here. I'll look for it first."
Hearing this, Peng Hongxi also got up and followed him to the study, watching Xu Chuan bending down and rummaging around in the study.
After a while, Xu Chuan stood up, scratched his head and smiled awkwardly at Peng Hongxi, and said, "It seems there is none here. I'll call again and ask."
With that said, he dialed Gu Bing's phone number again.
"Hey, Gu Bing, ask Amelia if she has touched the manuscript paper in my drawer?" Xu Chuan asked.
Gu Bing asked and quickly replied: "No, we usually don't touch your things, and we don't touch your desk for cleaning or anything."
"That's strange."
Xu Chuan looked confused. He clearly remembered that the manuscript paper was placed in the drawer of his desk. If he brought it back, it was not in the study. There was no way he could throw this kind of thing anywhere else.
As for what Gu Bing and Amelia lied about, it basically didn’t exist. After all, it was unnecessary.
"Would you like to go and take a look together?" Peng Hongxi asked.
Xu Chuan nodded and said: "Okay."
After making a call to Zheng Hai, Xu Chuan and Peng Hongxi rushed to Nanda.
"Professor, Academician Peng."
In the office, Gu Bing and Amelia were doing their own research. When they saw Xu Chuan and Peng Hongxi, they quickly stood up to say hello.
Xu Chuan nodded, walked to his desk, and opened the drawer.
The sight in front of him stunned him for a moment, and then he quickly looked through other drawers.
And among the several empty drawers, not to mention the manuscript papers held together with binder clips, even the messy and unorganized manuscript papers were gone.
It seems like his office was really broken into?
Someone took away the manuscript paper he put in the drawer. Not only the theoretical results, but also some other manuscript papers were also taken away.
Now the entire three-layer drawer is clean, with nothing left except a few pens and a stack of brand new A4 paper.
There is a prototype for this. Mr. Hua Luogenghua must be familiar to everyone. His manuscripts have been stolen, and they were stolen from the School of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences