Chapter 14 Stellarators and Tokamaks

Faced with Fang Xu's doubts, Lu Yongchang could only curl his lips slightly.

This is what I have said more than anything else!

If Fang Xu knew that he spent a whole night drawing out this drawing, he would probably be on the dissecting table by now, right?

"It's just a drawing of a reactor, and it's still far from an entire controllable nuclear fusion reactor!"

Hearing Lu Yongchang's words full of Versailles connotations, Fang Xu's mouth twitched twice.

In his 45 years of life experience, Lu Yongchang should be the best person he has ever seen, right?

But soon, he noticed something strange.

"etc!"

"This reactor..."

Fang Xu's voice made everyone's hearts twitch.

Hong Qiming couldn't help but look at him.

Could it be that... there is something wrong with the drawings of this reactor? !

"This is not a Tokmak device!"

Fang Xu shouted in surprise!

There was a hint of smile in the corner of Lu Yongchang's eyes.

As expected of Academician Fang, I really couldn’t hide it from him!

"Of course this is not a Tokmak device!"

"This is a stellarator."

Lu Yongchang chuckled and said, "If my calculations are correct, ITER's controllable nuclear fusion duration should be within 30 minutes, right?"

Fang Xu's eyes moved slightly and nodded slightly: "Yes, the latest experimental results show that the fusion reaction lasted for about 26 minutes."

"Could it be that..."

"Haha..." Lu Yongchang smiled faintly: "If nothing happens, ITER will touch the ceiling of the Tokmak device soon!"

Fang Xu's pupils shrank suddenly: "You mean... the Tokmak device is not the optimal solution to achieve controllable nuclear fusion?!"

Lu Yongchang nodded and confirmed Fang Xu's statement.

"How is it possible... If this is the case, wouldn't it mean that mankind has been moving on the wrong path for decades?!"

Fang Xu froze on the spot and muttered to himself.

He couldn't accept what Lu Yongchang said!

Lu Yongchang naturally understood Fang Xu's complicated mood at this time.

In the previous life, in order to break the monopoly, all the scientific research power of the Xia State was invested in the research and development of the Tokmak device!

However, no matter how hard we try, the controllable nuclear fusion cannot be maintained for more than thirty minutes!

At that time, this was a fatal blow to the confidence of all scientific researchers!

If Fang Xu hadn't learned about the flaws of the Tokmak device by chance, Xia Guo would have made a huge mistake on the road to achieving controllable nuclear fusion!

"How...how can I verify your statement?!"

Fang Xu is indeed the top scientist in Xia Kingdom. After a brief moment of confusion, he reacted immediately and asked Lu Yongchang in a deep voice.

Lu Yongchang shrugged and said with an understatement: "It's very simple. You just need to find a basic stellarator, use the material I deduced to build a reactor, and then ignite nuclear fusion. It will naturally be verified. "

Fang Xu's eyes moved slightly.

He remembered that there was indeed an "outdated" stellarator device in the laboratory that he had bought at a large price.

"etc!"

Hong Qiming's loud voice suddenly sounded from the side.

"You...can anyone explain to me what the stellarator and tokmak device mean?"

As he spoke, Hong Qiming turned his attention to Lu Yongchang.

Seeing this scene, Guan Hualiang and Fang Xu took a step back and handed the stage to Lu Yongchang.

Lu Yongchang thought for a moment and then said: "Hong Bu, you should know that controllable nuclear fusion requires a strong magnetic field to restrain the nuclear fusion material, right?"

Seeing Hong Qiming nodding, Lu Yongchang breathed a sigh of relief.

That’s easy to explain!

Otherwise... he still needs to explain the principles of controllable nuclear fusion from the beginning!

Although it can be solved in a few words, it is still a bit troublesome!

"Simply put, the tokmak device's toroidal spiral magnetic cage generation requires plasma current, but the stellarator does not need it. It can directly generate a twisted toroidal magnetic cage through external coils."

"Then...is there any difference between the two? Don't they both produce magnetic fields?"

Hong Qiming showed a trace of confusion in his eyes.

"Crack!"

Lu Yongchang lightly snapped his fingers.

"That's the point!"

"In the Tokmak device, the plasma current reaches tens of millions of amperes. Such a huge current will inevitably cause countless problems."

"For example, distortion mode, magnetic surface tearing, magnetic island generation, etc.!"

"All of this reduces the ability to confine the plasma."

"The consequences range from a flameout to an explosion!"

While speaking, Lu Yongchang made an explosive gesture.

Hong Qiming nodded as if understanding.

Although he didn't understand the various professional terms spoken by Lu Yongchang, he understood the last sentence.

Will the Tokmak explode if left alone? !

Hong Qiming looked at Academician Fang Xu standing next to him with a complicated look.

Facing Hong Qiming's gaze, Fang Xu could only nod helplessly and said: "There is a possibility, but... so far, the Tokmak device has not experienced such a serious failure!"

"Not now, but what about in the future?" Lu Yongchang said calmly, "When the fusion maintenance time is increased to 30 minutes, serious consequences may occur!"

Fang Xu's body suddenly stiffened, and he cried out in surprise: "You mean, the tokamak device will explode after 30 minutes of fusion?!"

Lv Yongchang nodded with a complicated look: "Yes, this is also the biggest trap of the tokamak device."

"Although the polar magnetic field formed by the plasma current makes the magnetic cage very simple, the high temperature and ultra-large current will eventually lead to some accidents."

Fang Xu suddenly realized: "So that's it! So that's it!!"

"What about the stellarator?" Hong Qiming swallowed slightly and asked in a low voice.

He suddenly felt that the sophomore student in front of him, with a young face, was just like an old professor who had been immersed in it for decades!

Even Fang Xu, in front of him, was like a student!

Hearing Hong Qiming's question, Lv Yongchang said lightly: "The stellarator is simple. You just need to use the external coil to create a closed, twisted ring-shaped magnetic cage inside!"

Hong Qiming: "???"

"So simple? Why didn't you use the stellarator before?!"

Fang Xu glanced at Lv Yongchang unhappily and explained again: "The difficulty of the stellarator is the manufacture of the external coil."

"First of all, the shape of the external coil is irregular, which is a major difficulty in manufacturing."

"On the other hand, to form a strong enough magnetic field, the material of the coil is preferably a superconducting coil, which increases the difficulty."

"After all, there is no breakthrough in room-temperature superconducting technology."

Lv Yongchang's faint voice came from the side: "What if I can solve the room-temperature superconducting material?"